The SFPD overtime gravy train will continue running, as on Tuesday, the SF Board of Supervisors very begrudgingly appropriated another $91 million in overtime for both the police and sheriff's departments, after years of similar massive overtime requests.

It’s been a running local story/joke for years in San Francisco that the SF Police Department asks for tens of millions of dollars in overtime pay that is well beyond what they had budgeted for. And they end up getting it despite the SF Board of Supervisors’ objections, as the supes approve this overtime year after year despite their own complaints. A new report from 48 Hills points out that police have been asking for this extra, over-budget overtime for at least the last seven years in a row.  

And it sure seems to deserve more scrutiny, as a December 2024 audit of the department’s overtime found that many SFPD officers would call in sick, but then work as private security on the very same day that they’d called in sick. That same audit also found that only 12% of SFPD officers were responsible for one-third of all the department's overtime pay. So surely there has to be some way to tighten the screws around that.

But no screws were tightened when yet another massive police overtime request came before the SF Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Mission Local reports that the supervisors approved another $91 million in police and Sheriff's department overtime pay, or specifically; $61 million more for the SFPD, and $30 million more for the SF Sheriff’s Office.

The supervisors approved the request by a 9-2 vote, with only Supervisors Jackie Fielder and Shamann Walton voting against the request.

"All of our city departments, all of our nonprofits, we tell them that they need to give us a budget, present it, and stick to it," Walton said before the vote. "And we try to hold everybody accountable but this department."

But nearly all supervisors voiced disappointment that the department was coming back hat-in-hand for yet another overtime boost, including Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who had previously been the department’s full-time salaried public relations representative.

“I’m not proud of this vote,” Dorsey said, before his vote to approve the funds. “I don’t think the city should ever be in a situation that requires this much overtime from our public safety agencies.”

The vote comes while the City of San Francisco is running a budget deficit of more than $800 million. Yes, SFPD is understaffed. But it’s fair to wonder how much smaller that deficit might be if the SFPD had not needed gigantic infusions of overtime money every year for the last seven years, and whether police overtime is one of the primary culprits for the city drowning in so much red ink.

Related: Scathing SFPD Audit Finds Rampant Abuse of Police Overtime Charges [SFist]

Image: SFGovTV