As Sacramento stares down the barrel of a $44 million budget deficit, there’s one department the city refuses to hold accountable: the Sacramento Police Department.
Year after year, the police department bleeds taxpayer dollars through lawsuit settlements and bloated overtime under the guise of public safety, while leaving our communities with less transparency, trust and actual safety. Sacramento’s police department routinely racks up more than $15 million in overtime spending annually — money pulled directly from vacant positions that were never filled, used instead to line the pockets of a select few officers.
Last year, city staff admitted in public records that there is no meaningful oversight of overtime practices within the police department. Despite repeated alarms sounded over the years, the system remains broken. There is no written policy justifying the “mandatory minimum staffing” excuse the department uses to justify endless overtime, no safeguards to stop abuse and no accountability for the officers routinely doubling their salaries on the backs of Sacramento’s working people.
City priorities
In April, the city council had the opportunity to demand transparency by auditing the Sacramento Police Department’s overtime spending. They refused…