Just how bad and out of control is the Albuquerque Police Department's overtime situation? Way out of control.
In the past 13 years APD has exceeded its overtime budget by a total of $39 million, according to the City Council staff. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, APD overspent its OT budget by an astounding $7.1 million. And the year before, the department broke its OT budget by $8.4 million.
Here's another way to look at it. Since 2008, APD has spent a total of $152.2 million on overtime. In FY 2020, which just ended, APD spent $17.1 million, or 8 percent of its $210 million operating budget, on overtime.
Here's the chart the City Council staff prepared:
Is in any wonder that State Auditor Brian Colón has ordered a special audit of APD's overtime practices? And is it a surprise that two internal city audits in the past six years have slammed APD for its crazy OT practices?
This isn't the first time that APD has been under fire for sloppy overtime practices. In 2014 an audit by the city's Internal Auditor found that APD had no system to control its court overtime costs. Read that audit here.
And in 2017, another city audit found that APD exceeded it FY2016 overtime budget by $3.9 million.
Over the years, even after damning audits, APD has failed to control its overtime costs. Last year, the Civilian Police Oversight Agency recommended that APD overtime king Simon Drobik be fired for violating APD policies 51 times in a year in which he made $192,000 as a basic cop. APD Chief Mike Geier rejected the CPOA's recommendations and refused to even discipline Drobik for violating department policies 51 times in a single year.
We'll keep you informed of APD's ongoing overtime woes.