Council approves Community Police Review Commission report, asks auditor to add Sacramento Police overtime audit to work plan

The Sacramento City Council approved, on the consent calendar, the Community Police Review Commission's 2024 annual report and 2025 work plan and asked city staff to follow up on several recommendations, including a request that the city auditor review Sacramento Police Department overtime practices.

The commission's new District 8 member, Denise Lewis, introduced herself during public comment and said she supported the draft work plan's priorities: a joint council workshop, a review of SPD resource allocation, and evaluations of public engagement programs including Drive Safe Sacramento and youth outreach. "I look forward to listening, learning and doing the work needed to build trust and accountability across Sacramento," Lewis said.

The most substantive public comment on the item came from a commission-aligned speaker who urged immediate action on a standing commission recommendation: an independent audit of SPD overtime policies, practices and expenditures. "I am urging you to take immediate action and order an independent audit of the Sacramento Police Department's overtime policies, practices, and expenditures," the speaker said, citing the commission's appendix and an estimated $158 million in SPD overtime payments since February 2012.

Councilmember Banks used the consent-item discussion to give two directions to staff. First, Banks asked that the city auditor add the commission's overtime-audit recommendation to her work plan. "I would like to request that the city auditor add this to her work plan," Banks said during the council comments. Second, Banks asked the mayor and city manager to identify and assign a city staff person to track the status of each commission recommendation so the council and the public can see implementation progress.

City staff did not oppose the directions; the commission item remained on consent and passed with the rest of the consent calendar. Because the report came on consent rather than as a standalone discussion item, councilmembers used their brief time to emphasize oversight and implementation rather than to reopen the commission's findings.

What the council asked for and what happens next

- Auditor work plan: Councilmember Banks requested the city auditor include an overtime audit of the Sacramento Police Department in the auditor's forthcoming work plan. The auditor's actual acceptance of that request and timing will be determined when the auditor returns a proposed work plan to the council for approval.

- Staff liaison and status reporting: Banks also directed the mayor/city manager's office to identify a staff liaison to compile status updates on each commission recommendation and return to council with a method for reporting whether recommendations are accepted, implemented, rejected (with reasons), or otherwise addressed.

- No ordinance or budget action was adopted as part of this consent vote; the directions are requests for future staff work.

Community context

Speakers emphasized fiscal pressure on the city budget and framed an overtime audit as a fiscal-control measure. One public commenter said most overtime spending had occurred since 2016 and detailed specific large expenditures such as staffing the complaint desk and court appearance time. Councilmembers said they want clearer pathways to act on commission recommendations, not merely to receive them.

Ending

The commission report passed as part of the consent calendar. The auditor and the interim city manager will decide how and when to respond to the auditor request and the status-report direction; the council indicated it expects follow-up and will consider adding the auditor's proposed work plan to a future agenda for formal approval.