Overtime spending down 60 percent since February

I am deeply disappointed by The Examiner’s decision to print the names and salaries of employees of the Baltimore City Police Department.

The names and salaries of all government employees are a matter of public record. While I’m sure the staff of The Examiner debated the merits of printing this list, I believe in this case that the paper exhibited poor judgment in deciding to go forward.

While the list was sensational, it provided no important information to the public and no understanding of the circumstances surrounding any individual officer’s salary.

The list did, however, endanger the lives of undercover officers and unfairly cast doubt on the many brave men and women who risk their lives on the streets of Baltimore every day. Overtime assignments are made by police commanders who assess the needs of their communities and make the best judgments they can at the time. While individual officers can make themselves available for overtime, they can not and do not create their own schedules. Publishing the list implied wrongdoing by individual officers and that is plain wrong.

This was tabloid journalism and a disservice to both the police and the hard-working taxpayers of Baltimore City.

Absent from The Examiner’s coverage on the subject of police overtime is this simple fact — overtime has already been cut by nearly 60 percent over the past three months. Together with Commissioner Hamm and senior police commanders, I am working to adjust the system and further reduce overtime spending, but we will not make changes that reduce the police presence in our communities or threaten the safety of our citizens.

The Examiner, like all news media outlets, generally provides a valuable service to the citizens of Baltimore. In this case, Examiner editors have chosen instead to use innuendo and a salary list to unfairly tar dedicated police officers.

As mayor, I’m disappointed. As a reader and a citizen of Baltimore, I am outraged.

Sheila Dixon, Baltimore city Mayor

A lot of overtime ordered up by city

Should the City Council freeze police overtime?

I say yes, but only after City Council members take a cut in their paychecks. They just got big fat raises, and most of them have second jobs. I’m sure that if you add their city salary to their other jobs it may very well exceed any salary that almost any city police officer makes.

Councilman Harris said the figures were shocking. Well, I want to see some or all of the critics do the following:

Work the midnight shift — midnight to 8 a.m. — and then be in court at 8:30 a.m. Don’t be late because the judge may dismiss the case if he thinks the officer will be a no-show. If the city wants people locked up, it must realize the need to pay an officer for court time.

A lot of the overtime earned by police officers is for overtime needed by the city, not by the department. You have city-owned buildings that need police presence during off hours. That takes overtime. Then you have the Orioles and Ravens needing police for directing traffic and maintaining a presence at the stadiums. What about parades, the Flowermart and various festivals that require a police presence?

911 operators work three different shifts, and the department must maintain a certain number of operators per shift. If the shift is short, a supervisor most likely will ask for a volunteer to work overtime. These are civilians, who make a lot less than their county counterparts for doing a lot more work.

I could go on and on, but I hope you get the picture.

Dolly Dobrzycki
Baltimore

The root of this OT problem: the last election

Someone should study these overtime costs in relation to the gubernatorial election. I’ll bet the cost got higher as the election neared. The overtime fraud was not perpetrated by the rank and file. It was perpetrated by gubernatorial aspirations.

John Laing
Baltimore