{"id":215995,"date":"2026-03-12T05:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215995\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T05:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:08:11","slug":"overtime-at-opd-is-now-much-harder-to-greenlight-following-investigation-by-oaklandside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215995\/","title":{"rendered":"Overtime at OPD is now much harder to greenlight, following investigation by Oaklandside"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interim Police Chief James Beere has ordered significant changes to OPD\u2019s overtime policies aimed at improving checks and balances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a meeting of the City Council\u2019s Finance and Management Committee on Tuesday, Beere said he issued a special order in mid-February, cancelling all discretionary overtime spending \u2014 meaning officers wanting to use unbudgeted overtime will need approval from the chief\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beere also said he is requiring officers to better track their overtime shifts and requiring transparency on the highest and lowest paid department staffers.<\/p>\n

The attempts to rein in overtime use followed Oaklandside\u2019s investigation<\/a> of one officer\u2019s nearly $500,000 overtime payout in 2024. The officer\u2019s pay records revealed major gaps in OPD\u2019s recordkeeping and problems with how the department manages overtime.<\/p>\n

Beere said he was personally concerned about OPD\u2019s difficulties in managing overtime spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live here, I\u2019m raising my kids here. I\u2019m a taxpayer, so it affects me,\u201d Beere told the councilmembers. \u201cI want to have the best systems online for our department to be successful so we can properly track it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No way to accurately track overtime spending<\/p>\n

Historically, OPD has overspent by millions of dollars<\/a> every year on overtime.<\/p>\n

OPD has cited two central problems as drivers of runaway overtime spending: its staffing shortage<\/a> and its lack of a real-time, digitized tracking system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City officials have been rallying to hire more officers, and the department is in the process of trying to institute a new digital tracking system; however, the system is unlikely to go online until at least December of next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Beere said the department\u2019s commanders need to step up to make sure OPD is getting overtime use under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to hold our commanders responsible for ensuring the supervisors are monitoring and properly supervising the officers, all the way from the bottom to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

The special order Beere implemented last month cancelled all discretionary overtime \u2014 meaning that officers and commanders can no longer work extra, unplanned overtime hours without approval from the chief and, in some cases, the city administrator.<\/p>\n

The special order marks a departure from the status quo. According to the department\u2019s overtime policy<\/a>, officers were usually not required to get approval from supervisors before extending their shifts, raising concerns about accountability and runaway overtime hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, officers need approval before extending shifts \u2014 except in the cases of critical incidents, such as homicides.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers cannot just arbitrarily start working overtime and close out cases on their own without having approval through the chain of command,\u201d Beere told the committee.<\/p>\n

Beere\u2019s order also mandates that when commanders want to allocate additional, unbudgeted overtime to certain areas of the city, they need to back up the need with data, like crime rates or numbers of citizen complaints.<\/p>\n

Beere also said he wants the department to be able to fully track what officers are doing when they work overtime, which OPD has long been unable to do. Our recent reporting revealed, for example, that one OPD officer was paid for working over 3,300 hours of overtime in 2024, but the department was unable to provide documentation for almost half of these hours.<\/p>\n

Now, though, Beere said officers must email their supervisors after overtime shifts explaining their duties, to ensure a record exists even when the required overtime forms go missing.<\/p>\n

Some Councilmembers were encouraged by the changes the department is implementing, but they also raised concerns about how far the department still has to go.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Charlene Wang said she is concerned about the extreme overtime hours some officers work. She suggested the department provide regular reports to the council on how many officers work dangerously long hours.<\/p>\n

Wang also voiced unease about the timeline for the new scheduling system\u2019s implementation. A digitized scheduling system was slated for implementation in 2024, but after complications arose with the contract, the project was abandoned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good first step,\u201d Councilmember Rowena Brown told The Oaklandside about Beere\u2019s special order. \u201cBut I am 100% waiting on the digitized tracking system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wang asked Beere and City Administrator Jestin Johnson if they were confident the new system wouldn\u2019t face undue delays. Both were reluctant to make any promises.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what at all the vendor would have to reconstruct to fit into this antiquated financial system that we have here in the city of Oakland, unfortunately,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI have to be honest with you all, that\u2019s something to keep in mind that may cause some delays \u2014 or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

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