By Erin Tiernan
Boston Herald
BOSTON — State Police overtime cost taxpayers $51.5 million in 2021 and Gov. Charlie Baker is looking to slash those costs by bringing recent retirees back on the job to work details.
The proposal, which is tucked deep within the $48.5 billion budget proposal released last week, would empower the State Police colonel to hire retired troopers in good standing as special police officers to perform police details.
To qualify, troopers must have retired no more than three years earlier, have an honorable discharge status, be fit to perform police duties, be certified by the state’s new police oversight board and be younger than 68, according to the bill.
The policy proposal is intended “to ensure adequate coverage and reduce overtime costs,” according to the budget bill. State Police have felt the crunch of staffing shortages exacerbated by the pandemic and have been under the microscope for spiraling overtime costs amid allegations of abuse.
Baker did not mention the cost-saving proposal last Wednesday when he unveiled his final spending plan as governor. Nor did his office include it in its highlight reel. But State Police overtime abuse has been the subject of frequent headlines for more than half of Baker’s tenure as governor.
In 2017, allegations of supervisors interfering in the arrest of a judge’s daughter and a handful of other misdeeds would eventually reveal a sprawling overtime theft scandal that would embroil dozens of troopers and spur suspensions, resignations and dozens more federal and state charges.
Dennis Galvin of the Massachusetts Association of Professional Law Enforcement said it’s common practice in local police departments to rely on recent retirees to fill detail shifts and said “there needs to be some kind of a cap on the hours cops work.”
“They’ve got some officers making $280,000 or $290,000 a year because of overtime and when they’re working that much, you have to question how alert are they, how physically capable are they,” Galvin said. “Excessive overtime hours raise serious questions about capabilities of officers and that becomes a public policy and safety concern for everybody.”
The Herald’s “Your Tax Dollars at Work” series highlights the top salaries of officers padded by lucrative overtime pay. Trooper Robert Pinto was the highest-earning State Police officer last year, raking in $289,463 — including more than $105,000 in overtime. State Police overtime has cost taxpayers $51 million to more than $59 million annually over the last five years.
Galvin said the policy change should include “some kind of controls” on how many hours officers are allowed to work.
But the State Police union is already pushing back at the proposal.
“These are jobs that active troopers can absolutely do and it’s the union’s firm belief that they should be the ones doing that work,” a union spokesman told the Herald.
State Police are currently engaged in active contract negotiations with the state, where the two sides are already at odds over the Baker administration’s attempt slip a similar policy into their next contract.
(c)2022 the Boston Herald