In response to a significant $265 million budget deficit, Oakland city leaders have made substantial spending cuts across various departments. Nonetheless, they have approved an increase in police overtime spending despite the city's ongoing fiscal challenges. The Oakland Police Department (OPD) has overspent its overtime budget historically, reaching over $55 million last year alone. With expectations to exceed this year's budget again, tensions rise over police spending amidst community concerns about crime and officer staffing. Union leaders defend the overtime costs as necessary due to demands placed on the department, amid frustrations over operational pressures.
"People don't want to work overtime, people want to go to work and they want to go home," Nguyen said. "It's not the officers that make the decision to go out there and create all these projects and all these issues that exist in our city."
Sgt. Huy Nguyen, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, said overspending on overtime isn't the police department's fault."
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