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CITY OF NEWBURGH - Overtime costs for Newburgh's police department this year were down by 32 percent through Sept. 14, months after the city's former comptroller called for a spending freeze because the police and fire departments were on pace to miss budgeted overtime reductions totaling more than $700,000.

Chief Doug Solomon and Lt. Frank LaBrada told the City Council on Monday that a combination of factors were driving down OT costs, including greater oversight and Newburgh's continued reduction in violent crime.

Newburgh has no homicides and just three bullet-to-body shootings this year. Between 2012 and 2016, the city averaged 47 shooting victims per year before seeing a drop to 17 last year.

"Calling in people to hold down crime scenes and search warrants, that's going to drive the overtime rate up," LaBrada said.

Overtime for 2018 totaled $737,467 through Sept. 14, a reduction of nearly a third from the $1,088,474 spent on OT through Sept. 14, 2017.

This year's budget called for overtime reductions of $424,430 for the police department and $321,860 for the fire department.

Overtime paid out to Newburgh's police department totaled nearly $1.6 million in 2017, representing about 20 percent of the $7.7 million in gross department pay last year, according to the comptroller's office.

In May, former Comptroller Kathryn Mack warned the Council that although police department overtime had fallen by $47,000 as of May 10 compared to the same time period last year, the decrease would not be enough to achieve the budgeted reduction.

"Right now, the overtime that we're seeing is just able to replace officers for manpower in patrol," LaBrada said.

Newburgh's rank-and-file officers have received more than half the overtime spent this year. Budgeted for 85 sworn officers, the department currently has 75.

Chronically shorthanded because of high turnover in recent years, Newburgh has lost 13 officers in 2018, LaBrada and Solomon told the Council. Vacancies created by officers taking compensatory or vacation time have to be filled using overtime, they said.

"Right now I sign overtime slips where, (for) the entire shift, three or four guys are off on comp time and a couple of people are off on vacation," Solomon said.

lsparks@th-record.com