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Police brief committee on Operation Metro Surge overtime; council presses for faster off-duty fee implementation
Summary
Chief Brian O'Hara and Deputy Chief Cucco presented detailed overtime and standby pay data from Operation Metro Surge, including week-by-week histograms and role-based standby rules; council members criticized the administration's plan to delay implementing off-duty fees until mid-2027 and sought immediate procurement and billing follow-ups.
Police Chief Brian O'Hara and his incident commander, Deputy Chief Cucco, told the Budget Committee that Operation Metro Surge required sustained, unprecedented mobilization and produced extensive overtime and standby hours across ranks. Cucco summarized the department's pay categories and operational choices: overtime (hours worked beyond scheduled duty), .5 standby (half pay while a trained officer remains at home but is required to be uniformly available within 60 minutes) and .25 standby for other assigned duties.
Deputy Chief Cucco walked the committee through histograms and weekly breakdowns of hours logged between Jan. 7 and Feb. 8, a period that included multiple high-profile shootings and demonstrations. The presentation showed many officers logged dozens of overtime or standby hours in short windows; a subset of officers logged several hundred hours of standby across the 32-day period. Cucco explained command decisions to call personnel in during rapidly evolving threats and to use standby to maintain rapid response capacity.
Council members were sharply critical of the administration's timeline to implement the off-duty fee the council approved last year, which staff now estimate will be operational in second quarter 2027. Council Member Wonsley said council action and a previous $300,000 implementation allocation should have yielded an earlier start and noted the city is currently subsidizing off-duty work. "We are currently subsidizing this at $1.4 million," Wonsley said, urging the administration to prioritize procurement and billing so residents are not left shouldering the cost.
Chief O'Hara and other police leaders said the off-duty fee implementation requires enterprise-wide timekeeping and billing platforms, legal and contract work, and coordination with technology partners; they committed to follow up with a clarified procurement plan and timelines. The committee asked for additional administrative follow-ups that identify which departments must take which steps to move the project forward, and for a more detailed activity-level breakdown of overtime uses (strike teams, hotel security, demonstration response, homicide investigations, 911 support).
