Cleveland council questions spike in police overtime after 2025 record

The Cleveland Public Safety Committee pressed police leadership on the scale and causes of the department’s record 2025 overtime spending, seeking more detailed data and policy answers to apparent outliers in the division’s top-50 overtime list.

Chair opened the meeting by saying the committee requested the top-50 overtime roster for 2025 and asked police and public safety leaders to explain the units and pay figures. The list, shared with councilmembers, included multiple officers with overtime earnings above six figures — examples cited in committee discussion included $176,000, $170,000 and $157,000 in overtime on top of base pay — and several airport officers among the top entries.

Why it matters: Committee members said large overtime payouts draw on general-fund resources that might otherwise fund city services and pressed the department to show how overtime dollars relate to staffing decisions, union-contract rules and reimbursable work.

What police leaders told the committee: Director Drummond and Chief Todd said overtime increased for several reasons even after a switch to 12‑hour patrol shifts. They said total overtime hours peaked in 2023 but the dollar value in 2025 rose because of pay increases. They identified three principal drivers: reimbursable airport posts required by the FAA, special-event and stadium coverage, and investigative call‑backs for serious crimes (homicide, sex‑crimes, accident investigations). The chief also described a STANCE unit (street and nuisance crime enforcement) and the downtown services unit (DSU) as recurring sources of detail overtime.

Funding and reimbursement: Fiscal manager Michael Gellman told the committee that many airport positions are financed or reimbursed through airport/federal enterprise funds; the department said the airport’s overtime is often reimbursable and that those salaries and benefits are administratively handled via enterprise-account processes. Committee members asked for documentation showing which base salaries and overtime lines are reimbursable and which come from the city’s general fund.

Concerns about hours and health: Council members highlighted entries in the list that appeared to show extremely high overtime hours for individual officers — for example one airport-assigned officer listed with 2,825 overtime hours — and asked how department policy prevents exhaustion. Chiefs said the department maintains a 16‑hour cap in a 24‑hour period, conducts internal audits, and treats much of the overtime as voluntary coverage when vacancies or details arise. They acknowledged some officers routinely take voluntary overtime and said commanders approve overtime through the chain of command.

Data requests and next steps: Councilmembers asked for a set of follow-ups, including: - A district-level breakdown of overtime hours and dollars; - A separated accounting of reimbursable vs. general-fund overtime; - The staffing/workload analysis used for deployment and the date it was completed; - Rank and pay-step information for each person on the top‑50 overtime list; and - Outcome metrics tied to detail overtime (arrests, citations, and other results for enforcement details).

The committee also discussed the role of collective-bargaining agreements in overtime assignments and pay (seniority/step increases), and whether staffing increases planned in the current budget (the department said it plans to hire 180 officers this year) will help reduce overtime-expenditures over time. Police leaders committed to provide the requested spreadsheets and the staffing analysis already produced for consent‑decree reporting.

The committee moved from the overtime briefing to routine legislation after the department agreed to return the requested data and clarifications.