It sounds excessive, expensive, and tiring.

Mayor hopeful Jacob Naven said he was told a Manteca Police officer racked up 54 hours during the first two-week pay period of this month.

Police Chief Stephen Schluer confirmed that was the case while pointing out none of the overtime was mandatory, 20 percent was paid by state grants for specific traffic safety enforcement, and it adhered to strict department guidelines to ensure officers do not become fatigued.

Officers work four 10-hour shifts.

If there is a staffing shortage on the following shift due to illness or vacation, officers can volunteer to fill the slot as long as they don’t work more than an additional six hours.

At the same time, there are rules regarding turnaround times between shifts that must be followed.

In the case of the officer with 54 hours of overtime, 11 of those hours were paid from a State Office of Traffic Safety Grant for satiation DUI patrols and bicycle education.

The grant restricts officers that work such additional assignments not to do so during an assigned shift.

The rest of the hours involved:

*9.75 hours for a callback as part of two separate Major Accident Investigation Team efforts.

*8 hours for training.

*9.75 hours for the monthly Quality of Life Operation that targets illegal camping and, as in the latest effort, resulted in 11 arrests for outstanding warrants.

*4 hours for motorcycle maintenance.

*11.5 hours tied to staffing the Cinco de Mayo event and mutual aid for a joint task force enforcement for illegal sideshows.

There was no patrol overtime involved in the pay period from May 1 to May 15.

Schuler noted Manteca Police Department hasn’t imposed mandatory overtime “for years.”

Mandatory overtime can occur during emergencies such as the 1997 floods or when there is a critical staffing situation.

The Manteca Police Department has a strict OT policy which explains why there are 59 different categories that are employed to determine whether OT is needed and how it should be charged.

The most common reasons for overtime are:

*Finishing up an incident that occurs at the end of the shift. In other words, if an officer is on an active burglary call, involved in a traffic stop, and such they don’t stop working until the incident is over.

*Court appearances.

*Training.

*Filling in for ill or vacationing officers.

*Completing the booking of a suspect or transporting them to the county jail.

*Report writing.

In short, overtime of some degree is almost unavoidable during a pay period for officers.

Some of the overtime the department is occurring are specific enforcement grants for things such as stepped up DUI enforcement, additional patrols to enforce the seat belt and distracted driving laws as well as operations such as enforcing laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors.

The funds often have to be spent before a specific date.

Manteca currently has 83 officers with four out for an indefinite period of time due to work-related injuries and issues. Another six are on limited duty as they fully recover from injuries.

To address, the issue of being down in manpower due to work-related injuries, the department will have three “out of budget” officers hired and working the streets by the end of June.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com