PORTLAND, OR – A report this week of payroll for the Portland Police Department’s 2019-2020 Fiscal Year which ended on June 30th revealed that police officers involved in quelling riots and violence ended up earning a lot of overtime time. Police officers responding to the “defund the police” movement by Antifa and BLM in some cases earned $200,000 in annual salary.
Combined, the Portland Police Department paid out over $4,000,000 in overtime pay to police officers. Portland Police say city officials have rejected their calls to hire more officers which lead to increased overtime during the continued riots and protests.
Around the country in cities where BLM and Antifa have been active in rioting, police overtime was also necessary. In Minneapolis, police were paid over $3,000,000 in overtime since the rioting began.
In Washington, D.C., police officers worked overtime, but Mayor Muriel Bowser has refused to pay the officers. The D.C. Police Union has since filed suit against Bowser claiming officers were to be paid a $14 per hour “hazard payment” as a result of overtime during the riots which she encouraged and supported, but never paid officers. The per-diem bonus was implemented by Bowser to compensate officers who were forced to work overtime during the pandemic.
“During the time period beginning March 16, 2020, Plaintiffs [officers] have regularly worked hours in excess of 171 hours in a 28-day period and have been paid overtime compensation for these hours, albeit at a rate that fails to include in its calculation the hazard pay that Plaintiffs have received,” the suit reads.