Police overtime is projected to hit $740 million this fiscal year — nearly double the NYPD’s extra-duty budget and the highest level seen in the last decade, officials said Monday.
The department has already surpassed the $374 million allocated by the City Council for overtime by nearly $100 million as of February, with four months still remaining in the 2023 fiscal year, according to a new report by City Comptroller Brad Lander.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and other NYPD brass defended the spending during a lengthy committee budget hearing Monday, telling councilmembers the department’s dwindling headcount warranted the extra pay.
Sewell conceded that the level of overtime “is not sustainable in the long term,” but said it has been needed to bridge the gap in shifts left by a dwindling police force.
As of last month, the NYPD’s staffing came in at 34,017 — down nearly 900 from last year. It has dropped more than 2,500 from the peak of 2019, when the department employed 36,717 uniformed officers, according to the comptroller’s report.
Lander projected that the force would hit a record high of $740 million in overtime by the end of the fiscal year in June, the first full year under Mayor Eric Adams who campaigned on slashing the NYPD’s overtime.
“The persistent gap between budgeted overtime and actual overtime spending is neither helpful for agency planning nor cost effective for the City of New York,” the report states, adding, “Simply budgeting less for overtime has not proven to be an effective tool for controlling overtime costs, without any accountability for agencies that exceed their budgets.”
The only other time over the last decade the NYPD topped $700 million in overtime costs was in 2020, when the figure came in at $721 million, which officials attributed to the widespread protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota
Testifying before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, NYPD officials said that as of Monday, OT costs stood at $550 million, though that tally does not include the reimbursement of $62 million from the state for the extra policing hours in transit.
Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey said the main driver of overtime was the department’s deployment to stem crime patterns across the city.
Sewell said the department has tried to cut overtime costs where it could, specifically noting that the NYPD has reevaluated its “cookie cutter” police response to events, instead catering the presence to the need. That led to a 14% dip in OT costs during planned events, according to police officials.
“It comes down to, as we move forward, putting our officers where the need is evaluating where the successes have been and being able to shift our resources accordingly to be able to account for the fact that the money the funds will not be in perpetuity,” she told councilmembers.
News of the sky-high overtime cost comes as the city faces a costly migrant crisis and a projected budget deficit of $13.9 billion by 2027.
Adams unveiled a $102.7 billion budget proposal in early January that would reduce funding for city agencies across the board. Under the plan, the NYPD would see its budget decrease from $5.59 billion to $5.44 billion.
Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan
