Memphis paid $110,000 in overtime last year to police lieutenant who guards mayor Strickland

Daniel Connolly | Memphis Commercial Appeal

Lt. Albert Bonner helps provide 24-hour security to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, and last year Bonner earned more overtime money than any other employee in the Memphis Police Department: about $110,000.

Another policeman providing security to the mayor, Officer Charles Cannon, earned overtime of about $98,000. It was the the third-highest overtime payment in the Memphis Police Department in 2017, according to a database released by the city in response to a public records request.

The city has long provided some police protection to mayors. But the city stepped up Mayor Strickland's protection after a 2016 incident in which protesters came to the mayor's house, tramped around on his lawn and appeared to look in his windows.

Overtime payments to Bonner and Cannon surged. The $110,000 that Bonner earned in 2017 was twice the overtime amount of about $55,000 he earned the previous year, according to the database. Cannon's overtime likewise nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017.

Bonner and Cannon are the primary officers on the mayor's security detail, but other officers also assist, said Police Director Michael Rallings.

Demonstrators stage a 'die in' on Mayor Jim Strickland's yard Demonstrators stage a 'die in' in Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland's front yard.

A key protester involved in the lawn incident, Keedran Franklin, says he and his group pose no threat to the mayor, and that the extra security is pointless. "It’s a waste of time. Waste of funding," Franklin said.

The mayor said the heavy cost of his security detail is regrettable, but necessary.

“It’s sad that we have to spend taxpayer dollars and use limited MPD resources like this," Strickland said in a statement released by his office. "But when it comes to the safety of my family, including two children, I defer to Director Rallings’ advice. It is public knowledge that I’ve had trespassers at my home."

"I did not always have an officer at my house, but that changed after the trespassing incident. Overtime for these officers is well earned. The security provided is necessary and justified.“

Bonner's overtime pay came on top of his base salary of about $62,000. Combined with about $8,000 in additional payments, his paychecks totaled more than $180,000 in 2017, according to records. (Bonner is not related to Floyd Bonner, the high-ranking Shelby County Sheriff's official.)

Cannon had a base salary last year of about $55,000, plus overtime payments of about $98,000 and other payments of just under $4,000, bringing his total paychecks to about $157,000.

"A necessary evil"

The high overtime payments to the mayor's security detail reflect a broader issue: for years, the Memphis Police Department has struggled to hire and retain officers. Overtime helps the busy department fill gaps.

In the year 2011, the police department had 2,452 commissioned officers. Morale problems, including a bitter fight in 2014 over benefits, contributed to officers leaving the department.

The police director said the department now has about 1,970 sworn officers answering roughly 980,000 calls for service each year. The department also employs dispatchers and other civilian employees.

The department has managed to hire and train enough new officers to match attrition of officers leaving the department, Rallings said. But he said the MPD struggles to find enough qualified applicants to build up its numbers.

The department aims to boost the number of commissioned officers to 2,300 by the year 2020, he said. “But until we get our staffing up, overtime’s gonna probably be a necessary evil.”

"Folks dead on Jim Strickland's yard!"

About 6:30 a.m. on December 19, 2016, protesters showed up at Strickland's home in East Memphis. Some of them laid down on his front lawn in a "die-in."

The protest came during a year of protests over killings of African-Americans by police officers, economic injustice and related issues. That July, protesters had stunningly occupied and shut down the Hernando DeSoto Bridge over the Mississippi river.

In August, activists attempted another protest during the annual vigil outside Graceland, but police kept them outside the vigil area. The protesters later filed a suit, saying that Elvis Presley Enterprises and the city had violated their free speech rights.

The protesters cited the Graceland incident as motivation for the protest at the mayor's house. That morning, they held signs with slogans such as "R.I.P. First Amendment - 1789-2016" and "Would you rather we die."

Franklin, the activist, narrated a video that shows the protesters lying on the grass. "Folks dead on Jim Strickland's yard!" Franklin says in the video. "They violate us, we're gonna violate them. They better hope we don't leave a poo-poo in the yard!"

He revels in the protesters' boldness as they walk deep into the mayor's front yard. "Look! They all up in the window!"

That day Strickland described the group as "about seven trespassers at my house this morning — including some who appeared to be attempting to look in my windows — in an apparent attempt to seek attention from the media."

In an interview this week, Rallings, the police director, cited several violent events in 2016, including the fatal shooting of five police officers in Dallas, the killing of three officers in Baton Rouge, and the death of Memphis Police Officer Verdell Smith, struck by a car driven by a fleeing suspect.

“Officers were being targeted, and then the mayor was targeted," Rallings said. "So we took that very seriously.”

Reached this week, Franklin, 32, said the lawn protest aimed to get the mayor's attention, not harm him.

“My situation with Strickland and their security, I know I’m no threat to them. Our organization, our people, our family is no threat to them or the city, any elected official."

More police overtime in Memphis than Nashville, Atlanta

Under federal law, employers pay overtime to eligible employees who have worked more than 40 hours in a week. The additional hours pay time-and-a-half. For instance, a person who earns $20 per hour earns $30 per each hour of overtime.

Overtime played a role in a sex scandal this year in Nashville, when Mayor Megan Barry left office following revelations of an affair with a police officer who guarded her, Sgt. Rob Forrest Jr.

Forrest had claimed more than $170,000 in overtime during Barry's time in office, and The Tennessean found overall police overtime jumped from $6.1 million in fiscal year 2014 to $9.1 million in fiscal year 2017.

The Memphis Police Department is paying far more money in overtime than Nashville — and it's on track to exceed its overtime budget for the fourth year in a row, according to city budget documents.

In 2016-2017, for instance, the department was budgeted to spend $16.4 million in overtime, but spent $27.3 million instead. That's more than the $24.2 million in overtime the Atlanta police spent that year, according to an Atlanta audit report critical of overtime practices.

In the current 2017-2018 fiscal year, which ends June 30, the Memphis police department is budgeted to spend $19.7 million in overtime, but was on track to spend $25.7 million, according to budget documents.

Rallings said that when the department exceeds its overtime budget, it uses money left over from other line items.

According to the city database, a total of roughly 2,500 individual police employees — including sworn officers and civilians — received some overtime payment in 2017, with the median overtime amount just over $5,000. (Median means half received more than that, half received less.)

The second-highest overtime earner in the department in 2017 was Lt. Dale Hensley, assigned to the North Main station. He earned about $108,000 in overtime, in addition to his base salary of about $62,000 and additional payments of about $8,000, bringing his total payments to about $178,000.

“I’m very thankful to Dale because we had three lieutenants that were out on long-term absence," the police director said. "And Lt. Hensley covered most of the shifts in addition to coming in for protests and other details.”

Mandated, excessive overtime

Overtime gives officers a chance to make extra money. However, Memphis Police Association president Michael Williams said some officers have complained supervisors make them do it.

“We don’t have a problem with overtime," the union president said. "We have a problem with excessive overtime. When individuals are being forced.”

Rallings said police officers sometimes have to stay beyond normal working hours if they're in the middle of something — a homicide investigation, for instance. Many other times, they accept invitations to do overtime, he said.

On other occasions, Rallings acknowledged officers have no choice. “There have been days we here administratively, as the police director, I have cancelled days off. That is mandated overtime." One example came during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, he said.

Burnout

Williams, the union president, said excessive overtime contributes to burnout. “I just think a lot of these guys need some relief, and then they need the opportunity to decompress.”

Memphis police officers often see violence up close, and Williams said many are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and related problems. “Things that may push you to want to do things to other people or yourself.”

A Washington State University study published last year concluded that fatigued police officers were more likely to associate African-Americans with weapons. And the problem of suicide among officers is so serious that the Connecticut-based nonprofit organization Badge of Life has been created to prevent it.

Rallings said the department works to support officers who are facing trauma or other psychological problems through efforts such as an employee assistance program. He acknowledges that fatigue can affect a person's job performance, but said the department tries to make sure employees get enough rest.

In the meantime, the department aims to work its way out of the overtime problem through hiring. Applications for the next recruit class are available at JoinMPD.com.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.