Supervisors hear BLA audit alleging widespread SFPD overtime problems; committee shifts salary savings into overtime

The Board of Supervisors' Budget and Appropriations Committee on April 30 heard a Budget and Legislative Analyst (BLA) performance audit that found widespread overtime-policy violations and management gaps at the San Francisco Police Department and approved an ordinance reallocating salary and fringe savings to cover projected overtime for both the Police and Sheriff’s departments.

The audit, covering July 2018 through June 2023, concluded the department’s overtime tripled during the review period and identified a set of problems the BLA says drove that rise. "We have 29 recommendations. Implementing them will reduce overtime at the police department," BLA audit lead Nick Menard told supervisors. The committee then voted to move an ordinance (items 1 and 2 taken together) forwarding a request to deappropriate roughly $86.6 million in salary, fringe and other savings and reappropriate most of that funding to overtime (about $61 million for SFPD and $30 million for the Sheriff), plus a $5.4 million draw from the general reserve to cover current-year needs; the ordinance was amended and forwarded to the full Board without recommendation.

Why it matters: the audit tied overtime growth to a roughly 21% drop in sworn staffing during the period, increased sick leave, and large special initiatives paid on overtime. That combination created fiscal pressure and raised accountability concerns for tens of millions of general‑fund dollars. The BLA recommended changes intended to improve monitoring, enforce existing overtime and absenteeism rules, and better align special-initiative staffing with measurable goals.

Report highlights and department response The audit found that in fiscal 2022–23 SFPD reported about $108.4 million in overtime and that about 12% of officers accounted for…