San Francisco deputies make $530k+ as staffing shortages trigger overtime

By TOM GANTERT THE CENTER SQUARE

(The Center Square) - A San Francisco County deputy sheriff lieutenant made $554,577, a sheriff’s deputy made $530,935 and a registered nurse made $513,294 in 2022 to be among the highest paid employees in the city/county. The big paydays were a result of overtime.

The city of San Francisco cited extreme staffing shortages and minimum-staffing union contract stipulations that led to 38% increase in overtime costs in 2022 from the previous year. The city paid out $367 million in overtime costs in 2022, according to documents received in an open records request.

The city had 42 employees who worked 2,000 plus hours of overtime. One deputy sheriff put in for 3,469.50 hours of overtime in 2022. The city paid out $373,229 in overtime to one deputy sheriff boosting his pay to $530,935.

The increase in overtime compensation comes at a time when city budget documents predict looming deficits to teach as high as $503 million by FY 202526.

“If the City does not take corrective action, the gap between revenues and expenditures will reach approximately $503.3 million by Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26,” the city’s five-year plan stated.

Tara Moriarty, director of communications for the sheriff’s office, said mandatory overtime was required due to minimum staffing mandates negotiated into union contracts. Moriarty stated the sheriff’s office has 933 sworn positions, and is currently down 196 sworn staff. The county is trying to recruit more employees, Moriarty said.

“Due to chronic staffing shortages, which have plagued many law enforcement agencies nationwide over the past three years, overtime ensures that we have proper staffing to maintain public safety, protect our community, and safeguard our City’s jails, hospitals, courts and government buildings,” Ms. Moriarty stated in an email to The Center Square. “Overtime actually saves the City money in the long run, if healthcare and retirement costs are considered.”

By BETHANY BLANKLEY

THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) – At least 156,274 people illegally entered the U.S. in January, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data published on Friday, down 40% from 251,978 in December 2022, it says. The data excludes gotaway numbers referring to those who are known and reported to illegally enter between ports of entry, evade capture by law enforcement, and don’t return to Mexico or Canada.

In December, at least 87,631 gotaways were reported in the nine southern border sectors, according to data obtained by The Center Square from a Border Patrol agent. The agent provided the information on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation; it only includes Border Patrol data and excludes Office of Field Operations data.

In January, gotaways totaled nearly 60,000, with the greatest numbers being reported in the El Paso and Del Rio sectors of Texas. Apprehensions and gotaways combined totaled at least 215,998 in January, according to the data.

“The January monthly operational update clearly illustrates that new border enforcement measures are working, with the lowest level of Border Patrol encounters between Ports of Entry since February of 2021,” CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said. “Those trends have continued into February, with average encounters of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans plummeting.”

The monthly number is nearly as high as the total apprehensions for nine southwest sectors reported in fiscal 2017, excluding gotaways, of 303,916, according to CBP data. January’s monthly total is also greater than the total numbers apprehended in fiscal 1970 and each fiscal year through 1960 when Border Patrol began reporting the data by sector.

Since President Biden’s been in office, monthly apprehensions of illegal foreign nationals surpassed a minimum of 150,000 for 23 consecutive months, with some months, including gotaways, like last November and December, totaling over 300,000 each.

According to preliminary Border Patrol data obtained by The Center Square, Texas continued to bear the brunt of illegal entries, with El Paso and Del Rio sectors seeing the most traffic.

Apprehensions include those in the U.S. illegally who surrender or are caught by BP officers. Turnbacks include those who entered illegally but returned to Mexico. Gotaways are being reported two ways to show how many are reported evading capture as they make their way north despite the best efforts of BP agents and local law enforcement attempting to apprehend them.

For example, in the RGV Sector of Texas, the 687 recorded in the gotaway interior zone would have been identified somewhere along Highway 281, up into Brooks County several hundred miles north of the border.

Unclassifiable detection (previously “unresolved detection”) isn’t part of 6 U.S. Code, which classifies how encounters are to be reported. This and the now-deleted category of “no arrests” were used as a way to lower the number of gotaways being reported, a BP agent explained to The Center Square on condition of anonymity out of fear for the agent’s job.

The previously deleted category of “no arrests” meant someone “was detected in a non-border zone and their presence didn’t affect Got-Away statistics,” according to the official internal tracking system definition used