Baton Rouge Police Department officers claimed nearly 12,000 hours worth of overtime in June from working protests, costing the department nearly $655,500, according to public records.
Despite the city-parish administration telling Daily Report last month that overtime hours worked by Baton Rouge Police Department officers for the protests were expected to be minimal, public records show that more than 300 BRPD officers in the uniformed patrol bureau claimed overtime hours, as well as dozens of officers who are part of criminal investigation and special operations divisions. The overtime hours were specified in the records as related to the protests in June.
The police department’s annual budget is about $93 million.
Protests against racial injustice began in late May in Baton Rouge following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and took place mostly in downtown and along Siegen Lane during the first two weeks of June. The sheriff’s department, which worked protests along Siegen Lane and in other areas of south Baton Rouge, clocked roughly 4,600 overtime hours by deputies working the protests, totaling nearly $185,000, in the first 10 days of June.
City-parish spokesman Mark Armstrong confirmed Thursday morning that the records were accurate and says BRPD leadership deemed the overtime necessary.
“It was determined to be an emergency situation for the sake of public safety, so the officers were activated,” Armstrong says.
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