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okcknight t1_ja0on7d wrote

Police Vacancy: %21 (157/755)

Police OT: 6.2 MM

Police Budget (2022): 97.8MM

Percentage OT to Budget: %6.3

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Fire Vacancy: 1.5% (6/401)

Fire OT: 4.7MM

Fire Budget: 62MM

Percentage OT to Budget: %7.5

Something I found interesting: despite having a 1.5% vacancy rate, the fire department is paying %7.5 of its total budget in overtime. Meanwhile the police vacancy is 14 times greater and running at approximately 6.3% of their total budget, less than Fire percentage-wise. I wonder what the reason for that is. I would expect the fire OT numbers to be much lower considering their staffing.

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choicebutts OP t1_ja0qgg2 wrote

Probably because there are up to four people in one piece of fire equipment and only one or two in a police car.

Also, the fire department gives full response to apartment and highrise calls and has to have the staff available.

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okcknight t1_ja0sica wrote

Excuse my ignorance but what difference does that make? If four guys work on one truck, and one position is vacant, that means you’re paying the OT for one guy right? I’m confused

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choicebutts OP t1_ja2ipar wrote

You need more guys to man a fire truck than a police car. You have to have X number of people available at all times to man these vehicles. You have to have X number of vehicles available, manned, every day.

Police don't have to have X number of people available every single day.

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okcknight t1_ja3kdm0 wrote

That explanation still doesn’t make sense to me but whatever haha.

Also, the police department does have minimum staffing requirements per precinct per shift who need to be available to run the 911 calls. That is where all their OT comes from.

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choicebutts OP t1_ja3mpst wrote

Okay, so your computations should include that variable, as well as the minimum staffing requirements for the fire department to get a more accurate picture of why there is more overtime in one department over the other.

Another thing to consider is that there are several law enforcement agencies in Richmond and only one fire department.

VCU Police man special events in the VCU area, for example. If VCU Police weren't there, manning that event would end up as overtime for Richmond Police. VCU Police, the Sheriff's Department, State Police, and Capitol Police all have arrest powers in Richmond.

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okcknight t1_ja3utv4 wrote

I get it, but aren’t those needs reflected in the 400 staffing number? If six vacancies is resulting in this much overtime, maybe they need to raise that number. But I think the article is giving us a 2022 overtime number with 2023 vacancies, which are currently much lower than they were from what I understand.

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GrumpyNewYorker t1_ja0xt1d wrote

I don’t know why you’re being downvoted for being inquisitive.

Are you looking at just the portion of the budget dedicated to salary for Fire and Police, or are you looking at the entire budgets for those departments? It’s not an apples to apples comparison between the two departments.

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okcknight t1_ja13edw wrote

I was looking at the entire budget.

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GrumpyNewYorker t1_ja13r8p wrote

Yeah, that’s not going to be a good enough metric. There’s too much variability in what it costs to run a fire department versus what it costs to run a police department. There should be an itemized budget somewhere. If you look at the portion dedicated solely to salaries, that’s a good start.

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okcknight t1_ja14p6i wrote

Yea I’m sure there’s a good reason for it. I noticed the vast majority of both agencies expenditures were personnel costs so it was a bit confusing considering the disparity between staffing levels.

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_on_the_chainwax_ t1_ja2sghi wrote

It is likely because that vacancy number only took effect in early January, when new recruits started. For all of last year, the number was much higher.

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throwingutah t1_ja3a7t3 wrote

This is the answer. We haven't had single-digit vacancies for a very long time. We've been working mandatory overtime for a couple of years.

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kaisermilo t1_ja3mqkv wrote

Fire department works 24 hour shifts. Also, I don't know about rpd, but the fire department has built in overtime. If we didn't hire a single overtime position, we'd still be paying people "overtime" for 8 hours a pay period (this exact number has recently changed and I can't remember what it now is). However, the built in OT is factored into our salary. If starting pay is 51k, your hourly rate is set so that your straight pay plus built in over time comes out to 51k.

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throwingutah t1_jaek2gs wrote

The built-in/FLSA overtime isn't counted the same as unscheduled overtime.

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Easy-Remote-8667 t1_ja2wxh6 wrote

Probably because fire personnel work 24 hour shifts compared to police working 8 hour shifts.

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