Only three months into the fiscal year, the Police Department has said it will likely need more overtime funds transferred to its account.
The investigation and extra patrols added to Olson Drive after the July 15 murder of Bernice McFadden have soaked up 16 percent of the year’s overtime budget already, according to Police Chief Kevin Hale.
In the July 15 incident, a man fired a gun into a crowd of people standing outside the apartments about midnight. McFadden, 39, was killed. Police are still looking for the man who shot her.
Extra patrols have been set up around the Riverside Apartment complex to ease the nerves of residents there and to make sure no one who is barred from the complex is hanging around.
The overtime for investigators and police patrols has cost the department $28,000 so far, Hale said.
“We have worked around the clock on that case for a number of days to try to get a quick resolution,” Hale said. “At the same time, we’re beefing up patrols. As we indicated, we don’t believe (McFadden) was the intended target.”
The department has $175,000 budgeted for 2009-10, and while Hale said it’s not close to hitting that mark yet, it’s still early in the fiscal year.
Monday, Hale will go before the Board of Apportionment and Taxation to let them know the department will likely need for more funds before the end of the fiscal year.
“Our overtime account isn’t going to make it until the end of the year,” Hale said.
It’s not just the McFadden murder draining the overtime funds. Police have been unusually busy all summer.
Last week, police were thrown into the investigation of a “suspicious” death of a 3‑month-old girl. The father of the baby, Rodney Lee Brown, has been charged with one count of risk of injury to a child in connection with the death, police said.
But they won’t say what role, if any, Brown played in the death. Police are waiting for autopsy results from the baby to determine whether to lodge more charges against Brown, or to drop the risk of injury charge.
Hale hasn’t calculated the cost of overtime in that case yet, but said the investigation is ongoing.
“With major crimes, you work around the clock,” Hale said. “You can’t just punch out at the end of your shift.”
Mayor James DellaVolpe said the city sets its budget with the understanding that police overtime might fluctuate.
“Unfortunately, it’s come up early in the budget,” DellaVolpe said.
Any extra funds transferred to police overtime will come from the city’s contingency account.
“That’s why we have a contingency fund. We put money aside just in case there’s a need for it,” DellaVolpe said.
