Mayor Bill de Blasio is joined by outgoing Police Commissioner William Bratton and outgoing Chief of Department James O'Neill during a news conference. | AP Photo/Mary Altaffer NYPD orders overtime review after report on Pantaleo earnings

The New York Police Department plans to review overtime payments for police officers on modified duty, following news that the officer involved in Eric Garner's death made more than $40,000 in overtime in the ensuing two years.

"We've identified a policy deficiency, so we have to go back and take a look at what our policies are going to be for modified officers," incoming police commissioner James O'Neill told POLITICO New York as he was leaving City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, after attending an unrelated meeting.


Asked whether the review came from within the department or from Mayor Bill de Blasio, O'Neill said the review was "our idea." A spokesman for the mayor said he backs the review.

"Mayor de Blasio supports incoming Commissioner O'Neill's ordered review," de Blasio spokesman Austin Finan wrote in an email. "These overtime payments raise real concerns and the mayor agrees this practice deserves a close examination."

The news comes one day after POLITICO reported that Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who placed Garner in a chokehold in 2014, earned $23,200 in overtime in the 12-month period ending on June 30, 2016. That boosted his total pay to nearly $120,000, according to payroll records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law as well as data kept by the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The previous fiscal year, which began in July of 2014, the same month Garner died following the street arrest on Staten Island, Pantaleo made more than $17,000 in overtime.

A medical examiner ruled the chokehold was a contributing factor in Garner's death. A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo in December of 2014, and the matter remains under a separate federal investigation.

The review could affect other officers who have been disciplined by the department, including some involved in high-profile cases.

Officer James Frascatore earned nearly $10,700 in overtime in the last fiscal year, despite being placed on modified duty for tackling retired tennis star James Blake in a case of mistaken identity in September of 2015. The mayor and police commissioner immediately apologized for the incident, but Frascatore was still able to earn the overtime, in addition to his base pay of $57,747, according to payroll records. (The overtime represented a slight reduction from the $15,000 he earned prior to his reassignment.)

De Blasio, who ran on a platform of police reform, has struggled at times to balance the concerns of police reformers with the department he now oversees.

Two of his allies — Rev. Al Sharpton and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito — harshly criticized the overtime payments to Pantaleo.

De Blasio had little to say about the matter on Monday, referring questions to the police department, which said, "At times officers are required to work beyond their schedule tour of duty, this includes officers on modified assignment."

De Blasio is under pressure from civil rights activists and politicians to release Pantaleo's disciplinary record but has said he is constrained by state law, after the department abruptly reversed its policy of disclosing disciplinary actions earlier this year. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called that excuse a "scapegoat."

News of the review was first reported by NY1.

--additional reporting by Laura Nahmias

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, this story initially referred to James Blake's ability to earn overtime. It should have referred to Officer James Frascatore.