The Nassau County Police Department spent about $80 million on overtime last year, exceeding its overtime budget by 64%, preliminary figures obtained by Newsday show.

The county budget for 2024 allocated more than $48 million for police overtime, but the department spent an additional $31 million last year, the figures from the Office of Legislative Budget Review show.

Nassau police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, in an interview, defended the spending as necessary to protect residents and visitors when attending large-scale events, such as a highly attended cricket tournament in Eisenhower Park and visits from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, during an especially challenging security climate.

But he said the department has already seen a 22% decline in the number of overtime hours worked in the first quarter of this year, at 34,161 compared with 44,249 last year, according to figures provided by the department.

“The budget responsibility is on me; I’m responsible for it,” Ryder said. “I’m a big boy, I know what I got to do. But I also know that the responsibility of safety and security of the people is on me. … So when we have events and concerts in the park and protests and unrest that goes on and threats that are made, it’s my decision on what kind of security I will put in place. And, unfortunately, last year, because of the threat level that was out there, because of everything going on in the world, I had to increase it.”

Chris Boyle, a spokesman for Nassau Executive Bruce Blakeman, said in a statement: “County Executive Blakeman made Nassau County the safest county in America and ended the year with a budgetary surplus even as the police department was forced to expend more resources to combat the state’s woke laws that give more rights to criminals than victims, and the Biden administration’s open border policies that made our communities less safe.”

At least one critic said the county executive is “misleading the public” about the police budget.

“He boasts about hiring new officers but conveniently ignores that retirements and resignations are outpacing new hires and stretching our detectives dangerously thin,” said Democratic Legis. Seth Koslow, the ranking member of the legislature’s public safety committee who is running for county executive against Blakeman, a Republican. “The result? A skyrocketing overtime budget and a force pushed to its breaking point.”

High overtime costs have been a consistent issue for both the Nassau and the Suffolk County police departments.

Newsday has reported that hundreds of county employees, mostly police officers and employees of the sheriff’s departments, made in excess of $100,000 in overtime in 2022, with a veteran Suffolk police officer who made almost $242,000 in overtime in a single year.

Nassau has attempted to hire new recruits to mitigate its overtime costs, which has been exacerbated by a steady stream of retirements in the department, which has 2,600 sworn members.

Experts have attributed mass retirements to a nationwide disinterest in a career as a police officer in the post-George Floyd era.

But Ryder said Nassau has not been impacted by any anti-police sentiment.

He said the last police test drew some 15,000 applicants — for just about 500 jobs, which he attributed to good working conditions and support for law enforcement in government and the general populace.

But in the last seven years, more than 1,000 officers have left the police department, according to a recent Office of Legislative Review public safety report. The county hired about 117 new police officers in fiscal year 2019 to offset those losses, but the COVID-19 pandemic upended the hiring plan, the report said, though the county hired 178 new recruits in 2020. The department hired 320 more in the next two years.

The department hired 102 recruits last year, a department spokesperson said.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said overtime costs can quickly balloon when dealing with timely investigations and big public events.

Giacalone cited potential overtime costs from visits by Trump, then a candidate, and Nassau police’s work on the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force, which recently resulted in authorities publicly identifying the remains of Tanya Jackson and her child Tatiana Marie Dykes.

“Was there a robbery pattern, was there a shooting pattern, was there something that required the police department to spend extra money to keep the public safe?” Giacalone said. “There’s an old saying, ‘good police work costs money’ and sometimes you can’t put it in the budget. It’s like having a crystal ball, you don’t know what you’re going to spend money on.”

Ryder attributed last year’s overtime costs, which totaled $80,022,535, to a series of large-scale events, including two high-profile events featuring Trump. Ryder said the police department gets reimbursed for police personnel provided at private events, such as concerts and sporting events. Political candidates pay for their own security inside of venues, but police must still deal with traffic and crowd control outside of venues.

While the U.S. Secret Service handles security for presidential candidates, local police departments work with the agency while also coordinating the overall security for attendees and traffic near the events, which typically draw large crowds.
Trump held a campaign rally at the Nassau Coliseum last September, drawing tens of thousands. He also attended an awards ceremony in December at Long Island University Post’s Brookville campus.

“Last year, we had the war in Gaza and Israel, so right away security gets heightened,” Ryder said. “We have the presidential election, so security goes through the roof. We had two attempts at killing the president, so when he comes to town, our security has to be top notch.”

Also, last September India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressed the Indian diaspora at Nassau Coliseum and MTV held the MTV Video Music Awards at the UBS Arena in Elmont in September. Ryder said the department investigated three credible threats to Modi.

“I’m getting reimbursed for the inside, but I got traffic conditions I got to deal with on Hempstead Turnpike,” Ryder said. “I can’t have people charging the UBS Arena because they see Taylor Swift.”

Ryder said the department was reimbursed for about $1 million for the cricket tournament and received a 100% reimbursement for the VMA’s. Ryder also said the department’s overtime will be offset by about $2.5 million in state grants that pay for traffic enforcement details.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement study cited overtime as a source of fatigue and potential safety issue for officers.
“Overtime and off-duty work have become a necessary part of police work but it has taken a tremendous toll on the officers,” the study said. “The price paid is fatigued officers who often work many consecutive days without the appropriate time off to recuperate. Officers become tired and overworked which, in turn, directly affects their performance as well as public safety.”

Messages left with two police department labor unions representing officers and detectives went unanswered.

The Nassau County Police Department spent about $80 million on overtime last year, exceeding its overtime budget by 64%, preliminary figures obtained by Newsday show.

The county budget for 2024 allocated more than $48 million for police overtime, but the department spent an additional $31 million last year, the figures from the Office of Legislative Budget Review show.

Nassau police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, in an interview, defended the spending as necessary to protect residents and visitors when attending large-scale events, such as a highly attended cricket tournament in Eisenhower Park and visits from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, during an especially challenging security climate.

But he said the department has already seen a 22% decline in the number of overtime hours worked in the first quarter of this year, at 34,161 compared with 44,249 last year, according to figures provided by the department.

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

  • The Nassau County Police Department spent more than $80 million on overtime last year, exceeding its overtime budget by 64%, preliminary figures obtained by Newsday show.
  • The county budget for 2024 allocated more than $48 million for police overtime, but the department racked up another $31 million in overtime last year, the figures from the Office of Legislative Budget Review show.
  • Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder defended the spending as necessary in order to protect residents and visitors when attending large-scale events, such as a highly attended cricket tournament in Eisenhower Park and visits from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“The budget responsibility is on me; I’m responsible for it,” Ryder said. “I’m a big boy, I know what I got to do. But I also know that the responsibility of safety and security of the people is on me. … So when we have events and concerts in the park and protests and unrest that goes on and threats that are made, it’s my decision on what kind of security I will put in place. And, unfortunately, last year, because of the threat level that was out there, because of everything going on in the world, I had to increase it.”

Chris Boyle, a spokesman for Nassau Executive Bruce Blakeman, said in a statement: “County Executive Blakeman made Nassau County the safest county in America and ended the year with a budgetary surplus even as the police department was forced to expend more resources to combat the state’s woke laws that give more rights to criminals than victims, and the Biden administration’s open border policies that made our communities less safe.”

At least one critic said the county executive is “misleading the public” about the police budget.

“He boasts about hiring new officers but conveniently ignores that retirements and resignations are outpacing new hires and stretching our detectives dangerously thin,” said Democratic Legis. Seth Koslow, the ranking member of the legislature’s public safety committee who is running for county executive against Blakeman, a Republican. “The result? A skyrocketing overtime budget and a force pushed to its breaking point.”

High overtime costs have been a consistent issue for both the Nassau and the Suffolk County police departments.

Newsday has reported that hundreds of county employees, mostly police officers and employees of the sheriff’s departments, made in excess of $100,000 in overtime in 2022, with a veteran Suffolk police officer who made almost $242,000 in overtime in a single year.

Nassau has attempted to hire new recruits to mitigate its overtime costs, which has been exacerbated by a steady stream of retirements in the department, which has 2,600 sworn members.

Experts have attributed mass retirements to a nationwide disinterest in a career as a police officer in the post-George Floyd era.

But Ryder said Nassau has not been impacted by any anti-police sentiment.

He said the last police test drew some 15,000 applicants — for just about 500 jobs, which he attributed to good working conditions and support for law enforcement in government and the general populace.

But in the last seven years, more than 1,000 officers have left the police department, according to a recent Office of Legislative Review public safety report. The county hired about 117 new police officers in fiscal year 2019 to offset those losses, but the COVID-19 pandemic upended the hiring plan, the report said, though the county hired 178 new recruits in 2020. The department hired 320 more in the next two years.

The department hired 102 recruits last year, a department spokesperson said.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said overtime costs can quickly balloon when dealing with timely investigations and big public events.

Giacalone cited potential overtime costs from visits by Trump, then a candidate, and Nassau police’s work on the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force, which recently resulted in authorities publicly identifying the remains of Tanya Jackson and her child Tatiana Marie Dykes.

“Was there a robbery pattern, was there a shooting pattern, was there something that required the police department to spend extra money to keep the public safe?” Giacalone said. “There’s an old saying, ‘good police work costs money’ and sometimes you can’t put it in the budget. It’s like having a crystal ball, you don’t know what you’re going to spend money on.”

Ryder attributed last year’s overtime costs, which totaled $80,022,535, to a series of large-scale events, including two high-profile events featuring Trump. Ryder said the police department gets reimbursed for police personnel provided at private events, such as concerts and sporting events. Political candidates pay for their own security inside of venues, but police must still deal with traffic and crowd control outside of venues.

While the U.S. Secret Service handles security for presidential candidates, local police departments work with the agency while also coordinating the overall security for attendees and traffic near the events, which typically draw large crowds.
Trump held a campaign rally at the Nassau Coliseum last September, drawing tens of thousands. He also attended an awards ceremony in December at Long Island University Post’s Brookville campus.

“Last year, we had the war in Gaza and Israel, so right away security gets heightened,” Ryder said. “We have the presidential election, so security goes through the roof. We had two attempts at killing the president, so when he comes to town, our security has to be top notch.”

Also, last September India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressed the Indian diaspora at Nassau Coliseum and MTV held the MTV Video Music Awards at the UBS Arena in Elmont in September. Ryder said the department investigated three credible threats to Modi.

“I’m getting reimbursed for the inside, but I got traffic conditions I got to deal with on Hempstead Turnpike,” Ryder said. “I can’t have people charging the UBS Arena because they see Taylor Swift.”

Ryder said the department was reimbursed for about $1 million for the cricket tournament and received a 100% reimbursement for the VMA’s. Ryder also said the department’s overtime will be offset by about $2.5 million in state grants that pay for traffic enforcement details.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement study cited overtime as a source of fatigue and potential safety issue for officers.
“Overtime and off-duty work have become a necessary part of police work but it has taken a tremendous toll on the officers,” the study said. “The price paid is fatigued officers who often work many consecutive days without the appropriate time off to recuperate. Officers become tired and overworked which, in turn, directly affects their performance as well as public safety.”

Messages left with two police department labor unions representing officers and detectives went unanswered.

Share.
2025 © Network Today. All Rights Reserved.