NYPD Overspending on Overtime Grew Dramatically in Recent Years

 

Comptroller projects that NYPD will spend nearly double its overtime budget in FY 2023, as it did in each of the two prior years.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released Overtime Overview, a budget snapshot of the City’s overtime cost overruns. New York City’s total overtime expenditures increased over the last decade by more than $700 million, from $1.46 billion in FY 2013 to $2.22 in FY 2022. The City overspent its overtime budget by 93% in FY 2022.

The New York Police Department (NYPD)’s uniformed officer overtime costs make up the largest share of overtime over-spending. Through February 2023, NYPD has spent $472 million on uniformed overtime, already exceeding its $374 million budget for FY 2023 by $98 million. The Comptroller’s Office projects that NYPD uniformed overtime will reach approximately $740 million in FY 2023, nearly double the amount budgeted.

“Over the past decade, NYPD overtime has grown without any regard for what’s in the budget agreed upon by the Mayor and the City Council – and with no accountability for overspending each year by hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “If New York City had unlimited cash, it would be lovely to allow teachers unlimited overtime to stay after school to help every kid learn to read or pay social workers unlimited overtime to help counsel New Yorkers struggling with mental illness. But other agencies aren’t allowed to show total disregard for their overtime budget, and we can’t afford for the NYPD to do so year after year.”

Over the past decade,. Actual overtime expenses were nearly double what was budgeted in FY 2021 and FY 2022 and are projected to remain nearly double budgeted overtime in FY 2023 – FY 2027.

Between FY 2013 – FY 2021, the City’s total actual overtime costs averaged 39% higher than budgeted. In FY 2022, actual overtime costs ($2.2 billion) were double the budgeted amount ($1.15 billion). While civilian overtime expenditures remained relatively consistent, uniformed overtime ballooned over the last decade. Uniformed police overtime accounts for about half the overtime costs of uniformed employees, and a third of all city employees.

Despite a significant increase in NYPD headcount between FYs 2015 and 2019, overtime costs did not decrease over those years, but in fact continued to rise. At other uniformed agencies, such as FDNY, overtime costs can decrease as headcount increases.

The 2023 January Financial Plan budgets $372 billion for uniformed NYPD overtime in FY 2024 and 2025, and $371 million in FY 2026 and 2027. Without any shifts in accountability for overtime overspending, the Comptroller’s office projects that the NYPD will continue to wildly overspend its overtime budget.

More information is available in the Comptroller’s budget brief here.