After reading an article from the Star Tribune claiming that Minneapolis overtime by police has plummeted drastically coming in 2.5 million dollars under budget for 2011. In the article they say that better business practices are the cause of saving the huge amount of money which is clearly the case. My question is how bad do your “business practices” have to be before they aren’t anything like a business. I told you that they saved 2.5 million dollars in overtime, but they also had budgeted $5.3 million for hourly police officers to work when they probably shouldn’t be.
I did a little searching and found out that the MPD has roughly 1100 workers (800 officers, 300 civilians) which is a little less than $5000 of overtime budgeted per employee. I would think that most private businesses would look at hiring additional employees if something really needs to be done in that overtime, but it gives me the impression that if that time can be cut in half just to changing the workplace policy to “ask your supervisor before you work any overtime” or something similar, that maybe a certain MPD was abusing the overtime system. I don’t want to say they are all bad, because we know how overtime seems to work in government…. there are a few people that double their salary with overtime and a majority of people punch in and out when they are supposed to, right?
My biggest issue with a drastic cuts in overtime there doesn’t appear to be any increase in crime. People’s safety is a number 1 concern I know, but cutting half of OT without any effects makes me wonder if the MPD’s budgeted overtime should even exist and why their employees can’t complete their tasks within their work hours. Yet with minor policy changes they can go from being over budget to being under budget. Maybe criminals can’t afford to commit crimes in this economy or someone in the Minneapolis Police Department doesn’t think they should be living as high on the horse during a recession.
What do you think about 1100 employees working in a business setting cutting 2.5 million dollars from their budget? Do you think that the last time they went over budget they had layoff contributed or that a change this large would only happen from altered business practices and more overtime accountability?
