The Bureaucrat Hall of Fame recognizes government employees who go above and beyond the call of duty in terms of getting over-paid or being under-worked.
Or both.
Adding insult to injury, many recipients of this award are employed by bureaucracies that shouldn’t even exist.
Today we’re going to look at the Oakland police department, which is a part of the government that presumably should exist (though Camden, NJ, shows that maybe we shouldn’t make that assumption).
The Oakland PD is notorious for being over-compensated, but one cop stands out.
Eric Boehm of Reason has the sordid details.
When Oakland, California, police officers are needed at Golden State Warriors basketball games and other special events, Malcolm Miller is the officer in charge of making those assignments. Often, he assigns himself. As a result, Miller has become one of the highest paid officers in the department. He’s earned nearly $2.5 million over the past five years—most of it overtime pay—according to data collected by Transparent California, a watchdog group.
What a scam.
It’s highly likely that Mr. Miller is a basketball fan, so he’s figured out a great racket.
He basically gets a big pile of money for going to the games.
He and his colleagues are making out like bandits.
…he’s hardly the only officer to take advantage of poor oversight and a general lack of accountability. According to the audit, 217 officers worked roughly 520 hours of overtime last year, helping to cost the department more than $30 million in overtime pay—about twice as much as had been budgeted. Over the past four years, overtime expenditures have ranged from $28 million to $31 million. Proper documentation of overtime work was lacking in 83 percent of cases, the auditors found.
Though Officer Miller might not be the worst of the group.
One officer was paid for more than 2,600 hours of overtime—equal to 108 days of round-the-clock work—in just a single year.
So how do cops get away with this scam?
Simple, they make sure to negotiate contracts that have sweetheart provisions that they can exploit.
And why does Oakland agree to such contracts?
Well, as Michael Ramirez illustrated, bureaucrat unions give lots of money to state and local politicians, and those politicians then conspire with the unions to give them contracts with the sweetheart provisions.
Let’s close by looking at an example of this kind of scam.
Perhaps the most stunning part of the audit is the explanation of a department-wide policy that allows Oakland cops to accrue 1.5 hours of “comp time” for every hour of overtime worked. When an officer cashes in that comp time and isn’t working, other officers have to work overtime to fill the gap. That creates a cascade of additional overtime pay—10 hours of overtime creates 15 hours of comp time, which some other cop has to work, earning 22.5 hours of comp time (if they’re also working overtime), and so on.
Here’s the accompanying illustration.
How ridiculous. Extra money for overtime, combined with being able to work fewer hours in the future. Which then gives other cops an opening to rack up more overtime pay.
Everyone wins…except for taxpayers.
P.S. Some bureaucrats earn admission to the Bureaucrats Hall of Fame by misbehaving. Often in very strange ways.
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[…] disapprove when police unions conspire with local politicians to get excessive pay and special protections (a very common outcome for other types of government […]
Chuck,
I’m pretty sure that’s 520 hours of OT per cop. So about $265 per hour. Which still seems high, but not sure what’s included.
Re: “According to the audit, 217 officers worked roughly 520 hours of overtime last year, helping to cost the department more than $30 million in overtime pay—about twice as much as had been budgeted.”
That can’t be right because it works out to about $57,692.31 per hour, which even Oakland wouldn’t dare pay its officers. Too, it works out to about 2.4 hours of OT per officer per year, which is low. Either the original was in error, or Dan’s quote is in error.
Don’t overlook the FMCSA. These bureaucrats participate in a scam creating worthless regulations that have nothing to do with safety. Their original purpose was to improve transportation safety and they cannot even answer simple questions like;
How many hours of driving had a driver driven at the time of an accident?
Not an accident causation study in 18 years.
My business, one with a perfect safety record, was destroyed for a paperwork recording problem having nothing, not one thing to do with safety.
Their present HOS rules made by bureaucrats with no driving experience, actually compromise safety.
Bureaucracies are the scourge of society and the greatest challenge to the constitution and the rule of law.
I can’t speak for Oakland, but beware employing an overly broad brush. Typically, when a LE agency provides security for a venue, the venue pays the overtime or extra duty expenses per a contract for the services (therefore not using government funds). Also, it is not uncommon for employees to be compensated in comp time using applicable overtime rates (this is not unique to LE). And, agencies don’t necessarily require that all vacancies be filled. There is usually some minimum staffing level, above which vacancies may not be filled. You may say that implies there is constant overstaffing, but it provides flexibility to withstand anticipated legitimate short-term absences (vacations/sickness) without paying overtime.