BPD Makes Little Progress After Overtime Audit

In March 2022, the Berkeley City Auditor published an audit of the Berkeley Police Department’s use of overtime, but BPD has not made substantial progress on the issues pointed out in the report.

Here are some highlights from that audit:

• BPD exceeded its General Fund budget four out of the last five years, in large part due to overtime costs

• In FY 2020, BPD surpassed its $71.0 million allocation by $4.8 million.

• BPD does not adhere to its overtime controls. In FY 2020, 21% of sworn officers exceeded BPD’s overtime limit at least once. Without adequate enforcement and tools to manage overtime, BPD cannot mitigate risks of officer fatigue and mistakes.

• The audit also found that BPD contracts out officers as private security for businesses. In fact, 53% of police overtime hours logged in 2020 were working as private security for the Apple store.

Out of the eleven recommendations made in this audit, BPD has yet to start five.

You can find the full 2022 audit here and you can take a look at this website to view any progress made by BPD on the audit’s recommendations.