![]() To that end, the mayor does see these expenditures as necessary since keeping the public safe is his top priority." "The increase in SDPD’s overtime expenditures is due to higher call volume connected to increases in violent crime and similar urgent calls throughout the city. "These expenditures are a reflection of police responding to calls to keep our residents safe," Gloria's press secretary, Courtney Pittam, said in an email Wednesday. "My responsibility as mayor is to manage the organization, to hold department directors accountable for delivering on their budgets," Gloria said.īut Gloria changed his tune this week after the budget presentation during Monday’s City Council meeting. The mayor said at an April 15 press conference that his proposed overtime cuts were "practical and implementable" and "would not harm public safety or officer safety." The final cut to police overtime approved by the City Council was $7.4 million. ![]() While his budget increased overall police funding by more than $20 million, Gloria highlighted a roughly $4 million cut to the overtime budget as evidence he was not handing SDPD a blank check. Gloria's first budget proposal came less than a year after thousands of San Diegans took part in protests for racial justice and police accountability following the the murder of George Floyd. The questions posed at the committee hearing are part of the budget monitoring process and I will continue to bring transparency and accountability to the city of San Diego." In a statement on Thursday, Montgomery Steppe said she has worked to hold the police department accountable to its budget, including calling for “the first ever comprehensive budget analysis last year to assist in making adjustments to items such as policing overtime. Nisleit gave the numbers while answering a question from Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, who had asked how the police calculated the 20% call volume increase. If those figures were included, Sharki said, the two-year increase would likely reach 20% or more. SDPD spokesman Adam Sharki said the numbers cited by Nisleit excluded reports from the city's Get It Done app and other complaints made to police officers not received via phone. RELATED: Officers still shoot at cars even as police departments call it a dangerous decision "A single, or even a couple data points is not enough to tell the whole story." "It seems to us that SDPD manipulates data by overspending the budget, and then finding a statistic or anecdote that justifies that overspending," said Keara O'Laughlin, researcher and policy advocate for the progressive think tank Center on Policy Initiatives.
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