By Walter Pryce
This is an opinion column. It reflects the views of the writer.
Buffalo police officers worked 35,526 hours of overtime in the fiscal year that ended June 30 just to keep enough officers on the street to answer 911 calls, a 65 percent jump from the year before, WKBW found through a public records request. That is not parade duty or extra patrols. It is the department covering its own minimum staffing with tired officers.
The Chronicle laid out the numbers this week. The fix the city is counting on, a state police exam in April 2027, will not put new officers on patrol until 2028 at the earliest. Buffalo cannot spend the next 18 months simply waiting for it.
How the city got here
Police Commissioner Erika Shields has been candid about the cause. The city last gave an entrance exam in 2023. “There should have been a hiring exam two years ago,” she told WKBW. “And if not two years ago, absolutely last year because there’s such a lag time between administering an exam and getting [officers] on the street, you can’t wait until you’re in a crisis mode.”
She deserves credit for the change she is making. Moving from a city-written test, which she said cost about $300,000, to the New York State exam offered twice a year should end the long gaps between hiring classes. It also lets Buffalo hire officers laterally. And she has won permission to recruit from Erie County’s candidate list. “We’re scrubbing that list right now as quickly as possible to see if there’s anyone that we can get into the January class,” she said.
The math is still bad. The department told WKBW that 44 officers retired in fiscal 2025-26 and 16 were hired. John Davidson, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said about 67 officers have retired since the start of 2025. “You’re seeing officers that are run ragged,” he said.
Hiring alone will not fix it
Here is the part City Hall should not skip. The city comptroller’s fiscal 2025 payroll report found police overtime pay rose from $11.7 million in fiscal 2021 to $18.5 million in fiscal 2025, and that overtime hours grew about 6.3 percent a year while base hours grew about 1 percent. In fiscal 2025 the department added about 63 full-time equivalents, and overtime pay still went up.
The comptroller’s newer report, as WKBW described it, found overtime rises whether staffing goes up or down. Mayor Sean Ryan’s administration agreed, saying the report “affirms our internal analysis showing no consistent inverse relationship between staffing levels and overtime costs.”
So there are two problems. One is too few officers. The other is how overtime is scheduled, assigned and budgeted. Raises make each overtime hour more expensive, and the comptroller found citywide overtime has run about 70 percent over budget on average for five years.
The strongest objection
The best case for living with overtime is that it can be cheaper than hiring. A new officer brings a salary, health insurance and a pension for decades, and overtime brings none of those. Some overtime is also doing real work: the homicide unit is among the biggest users, and the department told WKBW that its clearance rate has beaten the national average for three years, the station reported.
That argument works for a gap of a few shifts. It does not work for a department that WKBW reported had about 715 active sworn officers against 813 budgeted positions, in a city that the state comptroller says faces a structural deficit of about $103 million. Officers working forced shifts week after week is a safety question, too. “If you’re making that much overtime, how healthy are you on the job?” Council Member Mitch Nowakowski asked at an October hearing.
What should happen now
Mayor Ryan and Commissioner Shields should publish a hiring plan with numbers: how many recruits the county list and lateral hires can put in the January class, and a commitment to test at every state exam, not just April 2027. Mr. Davidson said the mayor’s office had promised more hiring this year. “That’s not going to happen,” he said. A public schedule would rebuild some trust.
The Common Council should require a quarterly report that splits minimum-staffing overtime from details and investigations, by district. It should also act on Council Member Leah Halton-Pope’s idea of a dollar threshold that triggers a review of an employee’s overtime. “I can’t understand how someone can make $100,000 in overtime in a year,” she said. The comptroller counted 40 city employees above that mark.
The city and the PBA should use their current contract talks to look at how voluntary overtime is handed out. WKBW reported that senior officers, who earn more, get first pick, which makes each hour cost more.
The next city budget should set police overtime close to what the department actually spends. That will not cut the bill, but it will stop the gap from appearing as a surprise each year.
What you can do
Call or email your Common Council member and ask one question: how many new officers will be on the street by the end of 2027, and what will overtime cost until then? Ask for the answer in writing, and ask the Council to hold a public hearing on the hiring plan before the next police contract comes up for a vote.
Leave a Reply