St. Louis police rack up $14M in overtime, audit finds

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis police spent nearly $14 million on overtime while struggling to fill 100 vacant positions, an audit has found.

State Auditor Nicole Galloway faulted police for lacking policies to monitor excessive overtime and said the department understands the situation is "not sustainable." But she added the situation will likely be helped by the repeal last week of the requirement officers reside within city limits.

The audit, which was released Monday, found eight employees doubled their salary using overtime, and an additional 99 earned at least an extra 50% of their base salary with overtime.

Galloway said officers assigned to the homicide division and federal task forces were among those filing for overtime at high rates, saying, "it speaks to the crisis of crime and violence the city has been facing for some time."

The audit also uncovered issues with officers who worked second jobs, including several instances of officers who were paid for working two jobs at once. The duplicated time could be a result of time sheet errors, but one employee's case was referred to the FBI, the audit stated.