In a WVUE FOX 8 New Orleans video report, Rob Krieger opens with a number that sounds like a typo until he repeats it: $245,903. That’s what the New Orleans Police Department’s highest overtime earner was paid overall in 2024, nearly a quarter-million dollars tied to one officer, Sergeant Henry Burke.
Krieger points out why the figure lands like a punch. Burke’s regular salary as an NOPD sergeant is just over $83,000, yet payroll records show he “rang up more in overtime than his base salary,” collecting about $121,000 in overtime pay on top of everything else.
And Krieger makes it clear this isn’t just a single outlier. He reports that in 2024, 23 NOPD officers collected more in overtime than their base salary, with many of them described as senior officers…