NEWBURGH – Overtime costs in the City of Newburgh’s Police and Fire Departments have consistently played havoc with the budget, reaching well over $1 million a year.
While the fire department’s overtime is down, it is up by 56 percent in the police department and Chief Anthony Geraci attributed that to the continued shortage of manpower.
“If we got to full operational strength, it would definitely mitigate that overtime number. We have four vacancies, but we have three people entering the police academy next month and we have 10 people in field training. So, when you do the loose math, there are 17 people – 50 percent of the patrol division, the officers who are actually out on patrol across the three tours – 50 percent are not accounting for manpower right now, person power,” he said.
The police department has an authorized strength of 69 sworn officers.
