James Craig: "“If you point a gun at officer (Photo: Deadline Detroit)
James Craig (Deadline Detroit photo)
Overtime at the Detroit Police Department has skyrocketed in recent years.
Detroit taxpayers’ annual cost for police overtime rose from $16.9 million in 2012-13 to $28.3 million in 2015-16, reports George Hunter of The Detroit News.
In that earlier fiscal year, overtime represented 5.2 percent of the $322 million police budget. In 2015-16; overtime was 8.9 percent of the $318 million budget.
The upside: The department's has sustain a double-digit reduction in crime, the mayor and police chief say.
The downside: Staff shrinkage forces officers to work extra shifts, which has put overworked cops and citizens at risk, union leaders say.
“There’s a cost of doing business, and when you talk about improving service and driving down crime, which we’ve done during this time period, I say it’s worth it,” Chief James Craig says.
