NOPD overtime spending indicates systemic failure (@bmccarthyTP)

Brendan McCarthy of Da Paper has an interesting article today about the amount of overtime being spent by the New Orleans Police Department. There's some officers in the department bringing in some righteous overtime bucks:

The NOPD has spent $6.1 million on overtime so far this year, nearly four times the $1.6 million it was allocated for all of 2010, according to figures from Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office.

A Times-Picayune analysis of the NOPD's 2009 payroll, meanwhile, shows that overtime placed many mid-level and low-ranking officers among the department's highest-paid employees. A handful of officers made more than the assistant superintendent and deputy chiefs.

The issue of police overtime has been going on for generations; it' s not something new. Overtime pay is the biggest reason NOPD have a love-hate relationship with Carnival. Working all those parades is stressful tiring, but the extra cash is a welcome supplement. The numbers McCarthy reveals in this article, however, go beyond what you'd expect to keep officers on the street in exceptional circumstances (like parades). Individual cops in specialized jobs (security to former Recovery Director Ed Blakeley, for example) are pulling in tens of thousands of dollars above their base salaries.

Let's do some basic business math here:

For example, the NOPD's three-person "Grounds Patrol Unit" pulled in a combined $89,890 in overtime. One officer in the unit, David Demesme, earned $39,168 in overtime on top of his base pay of $55,338. Demesme's job entails "building security," NOPD spokesman Bob Young said.

OK, so if Officer Demesme is making $55k, with benefits, he's costing NOPD around $80K annually. If his unit is pulling down almost $90K in overtime, that indicates they could easily hire another officer at Demesme's level.

But that would take serious money out of the pockets of the three men already in that unit.

The stats on the Homicide unit are disturbing:

The NOPD's elite homicide unit accounted for the biggest overtime bonanza in 2009, an average of $38,300 per officer. With the $1.14 million in overtime spent last year on the unit, the NOPD could have more than doubled the size of the homicide squad.

The homicide detectives, long overworked, often are called upon to work on cases at all hours of the day. For years, detectives have carried a caseload double the nationally recommended average.

Yet the members of the unit racking up the most overtime pay were not the detectives but supervisors. Lt. Fred Austin, one of the supervisors, earned more than $60,000. Sgt. Gerard Dugue, who last year led the "cold case" homicide section, earned about $57,000 in overtime.

(emphasis mine)

The supervisors are making the most overtime??? NOPD could have doubled the size of the homicide unit???

NOPD is a systemic failure, and Mayor Mitch's biggest problem.