Police overtime report shows $16.9 million over budget halfway through the fiscal year
Oakland police department is dangerously understaffed with only 509 sworn officers on active duty – far below the minimum threshold of 700 set by Oakland voters in Measure NN
Oakland Agenda Watch provides short summaries of key items on upcoming public meeting agendas that catch our attention. Today we take a look at the council finance and management committee meeting agenda for March 10, 2026.
Oakland police department overtime spending is over budget due to staffing shortfalls
Finance and management committee meeting, Mar. 10, 2026, agenda item #4.
The finance and management committee will review a report on the Oakland police department’s use of overtime.1 The report was prepared by interim police chief James Beere, and covers the six months from July 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025. The previous report was released on September 30, 2025 and covered the first six months of 2025.2
The overtime report comes after a media investigation reported that one officer earned over $879,000 in total compensation through prodigious use of overtime, and submitted time cards indicating that the officer had worked 23-hour workdays in some cases.3
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The finance and management committee report does not list overtime usage by individual officers, but does present aggregate data indicating that the department was approximately $6.3 million over budget (net) in its overtime spending at the midpoint of the fiscal year. This figure was calculated by subtracting approximately $10.6 million in salary savings and reimbursements from the total $25.2 million in total overtime spending during the first six months of this fiscal year.
The department’s current fiscal year budget of $33.6 million for police overtime is an $11 million reduction, or 25 percent, compared to the previous fiscal year budget. This substantial budget cut by city council appears to have been implemented without a corresponding reduction in service mandates or an improvement in staffing realities.
The report projects that the department is likely to underspend its overtime budget by $8.0 million (net salary savings and reimbursements) at the end of the fiscal year.
Oakland police department continues to be dangerously understaffed, despite voter mandate
The report also provides updated staffing levels for the department, reaffirming that the police department continues to be dangerously understaffed. According to the overtime report, the police department currently has only 509 sworn officers on active duty. This is despite having budget for 678 sworn positions, and is far below the minimum level of 700 sworn positions required by Measure NN, which Oakland voters approved in 2024 along with substantial new tax funding for public safety services.4 City council has suspended that legal requirement by declaring a formal state of “extreme fiscal necessity” for nearly two years since the measure passed.
“As of the date of this report, OPD is authorized and budgeted for 678 sworn positions. Of those, 617 positions are filled, 61 fewer than budgeted. Of the 617 filled positions, 83 employees are totally off work due to medical, military, or administrative leave, and an additional 25 are assigned to modified duty and are unable to perform the full responsibilities of a police officer. In total, 108 sworn personnel, approximately 17% of filled sworn positions, are not fully deployable. This staffing gap directly impacts overtime utilization.”
– James Beere, interim police chief
The report goes on to provide breakdowns of overtime spending and salary savings and reimbursements by month, and more detailed breakdowns of overtime by organizational teams, and by “element,” meaning the reasons for the overtime.
Backfill and shift extensions reflect minimum staff mandates
Backfilling vacant positions and extending shifts to cover staffing gaps were the primary drivers of overtime expenses during the six-month reporting period. The two largest categories of expenditure were “Backfill” ($4.4 million) and “Extension of Shift” ($4.0 million). These are not discretionary choices, as they are required to meet minimum staffing levels for patrol and essential functions when the scheduled workforce falls short. Additionally, episodic events—such as large public gatherings, sideshows, and critical incidents requiring SWAT—create unpredictable spikes in demand that generate additional overtime expenses.
The five organizational units with the highest overspending were the Special Operations Division, Internal Affairs, “Special Resources BF01,” Ceasefire, and Robbery and Burglary.
The report provides brief descriptions of each of the various divisions with what they do — for example the SWAT team, Internal Affairs, and so on — and summary explanations of the overtime impacts for each.
The report ends with a brief overview of the department’s technology modernization efforts, with an integration project expected to begin this spring and take approximately a year to complete.
See this related article:
Measure NN’s oversight commission wields unprecedented citywide power
When Oakland voters approved Measure NN in November 2024, many thought they were simply renewing a familiar public safety tax to provide supplemental funding to police, fire and violence prevention. Instead, they set in motion one of the biggest shifts in power Oakland has seen in years. The measure didn’t just raise $45 million annually, it created a n…
Other notable agenda items
Informational report on Measure Q.5 This item is billed as, “Receive an informational report on Measure Q: 1) Why was “extreme fiscal necessity” declared without open discussion and what the timeline is for making changes to this practice; 2) Following the grand jury report, when can the biennial audit report be expected; 3) What will the process be defining “extreme fiscal necessity” with Measure Q and other stakeholders.”
This agenda item contains no written materials, meaning that interested parties will need to attend the meeting or watch the video of the meeting in order to understand the nature of this discussion.
Oakland Report is by no means comprehensive in our coverage of public meetings in Oakland. The scope and frequency of public meetings are far more than we can presently cover. You can see the full finance and management committee agenda and meeting materials at the city’s agenda calendar.
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CORRECTION: The original version of this article misstated some of the financials by citing the first quarter (Q1) figures instead of the total of Q1 and Q2. The error was brought to our attention by an eagle-eyed reader. The figures have been corrected in the article. Our thanks and appreciation to the reader!
City of Oakland. “Receive An Informational Report Regarding OPD Overtime.” Finance and management committee meeting, March 10, 2026, agenda item #4. https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7869611&GUID=C7BCAC70-EEEF-4B85-BAD6-3E1BE26E88FC
City of Oakland. “Receive An Informational Report Regarding OPD Overtime.” Special finance and management committee meeting, Sept. 30, 2025, agenda item #2. https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7451345&GUID=39001EDD-2DEB-42E6-8A3E-4951FE9212D0
Klein, Beck. “One Oakland police officer made $490,000 in overtime. The city can’t find records detailing much of what he did.” Oaklandside, Jan. 29, 2026. https://oaklandside.org/2026/01/29/oakland-police-overtime/
Mandal, Rajni. “Measure NN’s oversight commission wields unprecedented citywide power.” Oakland Report, Oct. 7, 2025. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/measure-nns-oversight-commission
Oakland Measure Q, authorized by Oakland voters in 2020, authorized a special parcel tax for 20 years to raise approximately $21 million annually for “parks maintenance, homelessness services, and water management needs.”
Just wanted to note this from the agenda report, which highlights that the department's net overtime spending is an underspend of about $8 million: "When the report says this:
"Despite this progress, year-to-date overtime expenditure through Q2 exceeded the fiscal year budget by $16,908,499. After accounting for $10,637,580 in identified savings, the Department’s net overtime spending is projected to result in an underspend of $8,010.787. It should be noted that the salary cost associated with acting sworn positions reduces overall salary savings and is not reflected in the overtime report or the totals reflected above"
The salary savings were highlighted at the meeting by Councilmember Wang and Interim Chief Beere, who elaborated that it has been city-wide practice to save money by using overtime rather than hiring more staff.
How nice to see that Oakland continues its Schrödinger's budget. #1. It is in such an extreme financial emergency that we cannot staff the 700 positions approved by voters in Measure NN (which continues a long tradition of funding positions that are never filled); and #2. At the same time, we have such a big surplus that the city politicians have committed to huge bonuses and raises for Union staff (many of whom do not even live in Oakland). These pay shenanigans are also the reason for the collusion of the City Council and the SEIU to promote a Citizens' Measure to avoid a City Council vote. So, we have both an extreme Financial Emergency and a Pay-Raising Surplus. Those of us who are not fooled by the cooked books know that #1 is reality.