On The Clock

As overtime soars, D.C. cops are working more hours — and making more money — than ever. But at what cost? 

Metropolitan Police Department overtime data obtained by DCist/WAMU found that at least 40 MPD employees earned more than $100,000 in overtime and other extra pay in 2022. The data — a series of spreadsheets showing how many hours each D.C. police officer recorded each pay period for each of the last five fiscal years — show police officers and sergeants who routinely register 14- to 18-hour work days, walking right up to the line of breaking (and in some cases actually breaking) MPD policies on overwork.

The effects of police officers working up to 18 hours a day, back-to-back, over and over again, can be felt beyond the MPD budget. Research has associated extreme police overtime with an increased likelihood of use of force, ethics violations, and heightened racial bias.

“You don’t want to be dealing with a cop on hour 15. I can promise you that,” said Chris Magnus, D.C.’s Deputy Auditor for Public Safety and a former police chief in multiple cities. “For anybody, 16 hours [or more] is craziness.”

Also, with D.C. police staffing at a 50-year low, the DCist/WAMU investigation shows that mandatory overtime plays a significant role in individual decisions to leave the force.

“If you ask me, all the people I know that left, they all left for the same reasons — for their mental state,” said former MPD officer Mike Savage.

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These stories were completed with support from SpotlightDC and in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

About the Reporters

Published/aired on DCist and WAMU in October 2023