Jill Porter: Police OT in courts costs millions
II THOUGHT I'D heard wrong. When I asked how much the city spent in court-related police overtime, the number was so staggering I thought it was a mistake.
II THOUGHT I'D heard wrong.
When I asked how much the city spent in court-related police overtime, the number was so staggering I thought it was a mistake.
For a recent two-week pay period, court overtime for police cost taxpayers - are you ready? - $994,148.
That's just shy of a million dollars for 10 workdays - almost $100,000 a day.
"It is eye-opening, isn't it?" said Common Pleas Court President Judge Pamela Dembe.
At that rate, the city could keep all the doomed library branches open for the $8 million it pays in 16 weeks for court-related police OT.
The city provided information about the pay period beginning Oct. 27. Some pay periods, particularly in the summer, cost less.
It averages out to be about $20 million in court-related police overtime a year.
That's a stunning amount.
Some of it, of course, is inevitable.
Cops are required to testify about their arrests and investigations at preliminary hearings, trials and other proceedings. Invariably, some will be subpoenaed to appear when
they're off duty.
"If you want a war on crime, it's going to come with an expense," said Fraternal Order of Police President John McNesby.
The most "aggressive" police squads - such as Highway Patrol, SWAT and the Narcotics Strike Force - work at night and will invariably be on overtime when they appear in court during the day, he said.
But everyone involved in the system, including McNesby, acknowledges that some of the costs could be cut.
As well they should be.
At 9 on a recent morning in the Criminal Justice Center, the halls are crawling with police who are . . . waiting.
They're chatting with each other, talking on their cell phones, looking over reports, sitting in silence. One of them has his head down on a conference table, napping, in the court witness room.
Mayor Nutter has said that the safest place in the city is at 13th and Filbert streets, where police fill the corridors at the CJC.
It's not their fault.
When police are subpoenaed, they have no choice but to appear and wait until their case is called.
It can be hours.
"You're going to have a long day," one police officer told me, rolling his eyes.
Particularly irksome is time wasted when judges are late getting on the bench - and some of them are chronic offenders, McNesby said.
One police officer told me of spending three hours in the courthouse - on the taxpayers' dime - while a judge celebrated her birthday and took the bench at 11:30.
Imagine the arrogance of that.
Deputy District Attorney John Delaney, head of the trial division, cited other issues:
* Vague arrest reports that don't specify which officer did what, so that all of them are subpoenaed rather than just the one whose testimony is necessary.
* The protocol whereby judges give priority to cases involving private defense attorneys, instead of to cases involving police officers on overtime.
* Court dates being set without knowledge or consideration of whether the officer is on vacation, or is scheduled to work days.
"It's a complicated issue that's not easily solved," said Delaney, who worked with a task force under the Street administration that instituted some cost-saving reforms.
He continues to work with the Police Department to find economies without sacrificing the administration of justice.
And while the mayor's budget cutbacks call for police to eliminate $8 million in overtime for administrative and investigative work, court overtime has not been targeted.
That's because it isn't under the sole control of the Police Department, but involves the courts, the District Attorney's Office and other independent agencies.
"It's one of these soups with so many spoons in the pot, it's very difficult to manage," Dembe said.
Everett Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety, said he's convened a subcommittee to examine the issue.
"My job is to try to assist all the stakeholders to say, 'What's a better way to do this,'" he said.
The problem is complicated by the fact that some of the stakeholders - the police who can use the extra money - "are very much in favor of overtime," Dembe said.
You can't blame them for that.
But there are larger considerations here than individual paychecks.
With the city sacrificing fundamental services - libraries and pools and fire equipment - it's obscene to squander taxpayers' money anywhere. *
E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns: