A blue wooden sign with golden engraved letters reads "City of Syracuse, Dept. of Police" on a green lawn outside of the police station downtown. A blue sky shines down on the scene.
Syracuse Police headquarters on South State Street in downtown Syracuse. Credit: Julie McMahon | Central Current

Syracuse Police Chief Joe Cecile defended his department’s overtime spending Tuesday while being questioned by city lawmakers. 

Syracuse Common Councilor Chol Majok called a meeting of the city council’s public safety committee just two weeks after Central Current revealed the department had burned through all $5.4 million allocated to overtime in just eight months. 

Cecile admitted to the councilors the department had overspent its budget but said the spending was not “feckless.” 

He argued the department’s spending was justified and told councilors he would likely request more money to spend on overtime in the next fiscal year. Cecile also revealed that he expected the police budget to increase again during the 2024-25 fiscal year because of added body-worn camera costs. 

Cecile described to councilors that elected leaders and chiefs before them had tried to cut the police department budget but that they often found all of its spending necessary. 

“What do you cut?” Cecile said to the council. 

The department has run up a costly overtime bill since at least 2001, the earliest year budget numbers are available. Since 2001, the department has outspent its overtime budget in at least 21 of 22 fiscal years and outspent its budgeted amount by a total of $25.7 million. 

Syracuse police’s 2023-24 budget called for $5.4 million in overtime spending. That number was down about 20% from the budgeted overtime number in the previous fiscal year. It had been the biggest cut to police overtime spending in about a decade. 

The department made the projected cut at the request of the mayor’s office. Mayor Ben Walsh had requested departments citywide find places to cut. Cecile chose the overtime budget. 

Cecile said the department couldn’t hit the slashed budget because:

  • The department took on added overtime patrols in downtown Syracuse while also staffing protests
  • The department’s new schedule did not immediately lead to the savings the department expected
  • Several members of the department’s command staff — lieutenants and captains — went out on medical leave, forcing the department to backfill those positions with more overtime 
Want to read more about Syracuse police’s overtime spending?

Much of the council’s overtime focus fell on the department’s new schedule. Last year, Cecile pitched that the new schedule would come with savings. 

The new schedule provides more time off for officers between shifts but extended shifts from eight hours to 10 hours. It included more daily overlap between shifts. The department said it strategically staggered the overlap throughout the day to match with peak call times so it would have more officers on the road to deal with the call volume. 

But the department spent more on overtime this year at least in part because of a miscalculation. 

The department essentially fits the three 10-hour shifts into the same time span that it fit three eight-hour shifts, meaning it has paid for an extra six hours of work per officer it puts on the road. Then, when those officers called out sick or took vacation, they paid overtime for the extra work. 

After about three months, the department adjusted its schedule. It moved officers to new shifts while also reducing the number of officers it requires for minimum staffing. Documents provided by Cecile to the Common Council showed the increase in overtime when the new schedule came out and the effects of the scheduling changes. 

While much of the council session focused on the department’s new schedule, overtime to fully staff the department only accounts for slightly less than about $1.1 million — about one-fifth of the $5.4 million overtime budget. 

Cecile outlined a number of other expenses that may have contributed to increased overtime: 

  • Syracuse police drug detectives have executed 34 drug warrants this year, according to Cecile. That’s about one search warrant executed every two days. 
  • He contended that protests, including over Israel’s bombing of Gaza, have forced the department to spend more money on overtime. 
  • According to Cecile, the Rite-Aid on Butternut Street threatened to shut down over “chronic retail theft.” The department began an overtime detail to prevent retail theft. 
  • The department did not budget for an overtime detail Armory Square, however it has spent about $250,000 in Armory Square this fiscal year, he said. 

Cecile told the council hiring additional officers would help drive down overtime costs, however, even when the department has been budgeted for significantly more officers, it has failed over the last two decades to meet overtime budgets. 

This coming year, the department will submit what Cecile called a “real cost budget” for overtime — a budget that estimates what overtime will actually cost. 

In an interview with Central Current, Cecile said he expects that number will probably be around $7 million. 

He said that while the department has outspent its overtime budget, he expects the department to come “very close” to making its overall budget.

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Chris Libonati is the managing editor of Central Current. He is a founding editorial member of the organization and was hired as Central Current's first reporter. He previously worked at the Syracuse Post-Standard...