By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — The Buffalo Police Department’s overtime bill has grown by more than a third in five years. The police union says the reason is simple: the department is about 100 officers short, so officers are ordered to work extra shifts. The city’s own auditors have found that the story is more complicated, and the people who could explain it are not saying much.
Police overtime cost taxpayers more than $17 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, WKBW reported Tuesday, citing a new payroll report from City Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams. WKBW asked to interview Police Commissioner Erika Shields about why. The department said no.
“In the last six months it’s become a pressure cooker where we’re 100 officers below, so that’s where our overtime’s coming from,” John Davidson, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, told WKBW.
What the numbers show
The department had about 715 active sworn officers in the last fiscal year, against 813 budgeted positions, according to WKBW. The city has historically left some budgeted jobs empty to allow for turnover. Comparing that staffing to a 10-year average, WKBW found the department was about 18 officers below normal.
The comptroller’s report found police staffing fell by 44 full-time employees between fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2026. Over the same period, overtime hours per full-time employee rose from 288 to 328, WKBW reported.
The comptroller’s previous payroll report, for the year that ended June 30, 2025, shows how the bill has built up. That report put Police Department overtime pay at $11.7 million in fiscal 2021 and $18.5 million in fiscal 2025, a 58% increase. Citywide, actual overtime came in 80% over budget in fiscal 2025, and it has run an average of 70% over budget for five years.
The wage side has grown too. Hourly base pay for members of the police union rose 31.7% from fiscal 2021 to 2025, and 11.9% in the last of those years alone, when inflation was 2.6%, the report found. That matters because each overtime hour is paid at a higher rate when base pay goes up.
But hours have grown as well, and the newer report says overtime rises whether staffing goes up or down. That is why the comptroller’s office has concluded that staffing alone isn’t driving the cost, WKBW reported when the report reached the Common Council’s Finance Committee earlier this month. The Ryan administration told WKBW the report “affirms our internal analysis showing no consistent inverse relationship between staffing levels and overtime costs.”
Where the hours go
Besides B District, the Homicide Squad generated the most police overtime last year, just under $2 million, according to WKBW. A department spokesperson pointed to its clearance rate, the share of homicides solved: 93% in 2024, 75% in 2025 and 70% so far this year. The national average in 2025 was about 69%, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
The clearance rate has fallen two years in a row. The department has not said publicly how many of its overtime hours are mandatory shifts to meet minimum staffing, how many are voluntary, and how many are court time or special details. Officers with more seniority get first choice of voluntary overtime under the department’s rules, WKBW reported.
Shootings are also rising. As the Chronicle reported Tuesday, state data show Buffalo’s shootings with injuries are up 14% this year while the state’s other GIVE cities are down 16%.
Council members want a closer look
Council members reacted sharply to the citywide numbers at the Finance Committee’s Oct. 6 meeting. Forty city employees made $100,000 or more in overtime alone in fiscal 2026, up from 12 in 2022. Police accounted for 38% of all city overtime pay.
“I can’t understand how someone can make $100,000 in overtime in a year,” Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope said, according to WKBW. She has called for a dollar threshold that would trigger a review of an employee’s overtime hours.
“If you’re making that much overtime, how healthy are you on the job?” asked Council Member Mitch Nowakowski.
“The numbers continue to escalate and you gotta ask the question — there’s a group of people who are benefiting from that, and it’s not the majority of the people of the City of Buffalo,” University District Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt said.
What could change it
The city is negotiating a new contract with the police union, and overtime rules are likely to come up, WKBW reported. A city spokesperson said the administration is “committed to recruiting more officers and are taking steps to be able to participate in the April 2027 Police Exam.”
Hiring will take years to pay off. A recruit hired after that exam would still need to finish the academy before working a shift. In the meantime, the questions for the department and City Hall are about management: which overtime is mandatory, who approves it, whether the seniority rule sends the most expensive officers to the most hours, and whether a cap like the one Ms. Halton-Pope has proposed would work.
The comptroller’s office has studied police overtime before, in a 2016-17 audit and a 2017-18 follow-up. Its latest work says the bill keeps growing.
Also on the police beat
A Buffalo police officer was arraigned Monday on stalking and harassment charges involving a former partner, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said. Benjamin Coughlin, 44, of Lackawanna, is charged with fourth-degree stalking and first-degree harassment, both misdemeanors. He was released on his own recognizance, and a temporary order of protection was issued. The department’s Threat Management Unit and Special Victims Unit investigated. He is due back in Buffalo City Court on Nov. 4 and faces up to 90 days in jail if convicted. Like anyone accused of a crime, he is presumed innocent.
The Chronicle has asked the Police Department for a breakdown of overtime by type and unit, and will update this story with its response.
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