The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department outspent its overtime budget by nearly $12 million last year, and the sheriff is blaming it on staffing shortfalls exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The problem has led to long work shifts among detention officers at the Dallas County jail on West Commerce Street in West Dallas. And although the department hopes to hire employees for existing vacancies, mandatory overtime may continue into the new fiscal year that started Oct. 1, especially if the jail population remains the same or keeps growing.
Nearly 6,000 inmates were jailed Monday, which is 80% of its total capacity.
County commissioners approved a new $1.6 billion budget last week, including $195 million for the sheriff’s department. That’s up from $182 million set aside last year, although Commissioner John Wiley Price said the department had actually spent $190 million.
The new budget includes $2.7 million for sheriff’s department overtime, with the expectation that more extra shifts will be required for the current staff. According to the county, the department spent $14.4 million on overtime last year — and it was originally provided $2.5 million.
In a prepared statement this week, Sheriff Marian Brown said that the department is continuing to hire to fill unexpected vacancies, but that overtime must be used until staffing levels are back to normal.
“Generally, overtime is built into the budget because we are never without vacancies,” Brown said in the statement. “We also have to consider the people that are out on leave, and we must allow people to use their leave time. That is where we have to manage the people that we have. The hope is that we are able to keep overtime at a minimum.”
The Dallas Police Department faced a similar overtime crisis last year, and spent nearly $7 million over what was budgeted. The police department’s overtime budget for the current fiscal year is $28 million, and its overall funding is nearly $566 million.
To make up for the overtime budget shortfalls, both the county and the city are using federal pandemic funds. Local governments across the country have relied on money from the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan to help pay for critical public health and public safety services during the pandemic, including overtime for law enforcement departments.
The county’s 2020 budget also included $2.5 million for sheriff’s overtime, but the county ended up spending $16.2 million that year. The county’s budget officer, Ronica Watkins Babers, said that due to the pandemic, turnover and staffing issues, the office will continue to use CARES Act money to pay additional department overtime.
“When you take in overtime, your retirements, COVID — you have the perfect storm,” said Price, who monitors the sheriff’s department for the Commissioners Court. “It’s kind of unpredictable. We have no real options.”
Staffing shortfalls
Employers in nearly every industry are feeling the effects of staffing shortages because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioners last week approved 3.3% raises for all county employees, including at the sheriff’s department, to stay competitive with private sector jobs.
State jail standards require one detention officer for every 48 inmates. The department, which employs 1,348 officers, has 78 openings. With many on family or medical leave, those who are at work are taking on more hours.
The sheriff’s department said Monday that it depends on job fairs, college recruiters and high schools to draw applicants.
“Today we realize we compete against places like Buc-ee’s and Amazon to get people in,” Brown said.
Brown has asked police departments to stop bringing those accused of minor misdemeanors to the jail to keep the population down. Once people are brought there for booking, the sheriff’s department must hold them. That means more detention officers and more overtime.
“While there are very few vacancies, the sheriff’s department has deployed all units to be part of voluntary or mandatory overtime,” Price said. “Those positions are filled, they’re just not showing up. When they don’t appear, they’ve got to mandate someone.”
As many as 300 employees have been on family or medical leave at a given time in recent weeks, Price said.
But those shifts — including 16-hour days for some officers — have led jailers to protest. Fatigue leads to unsafe conditions for inmates and staff, they say.
“We just want to let everybody know we’re doing our jobs, but we’re not robots,” detention officer Lessia Gray told KXAS-TV (NBC5) at a protest outside the jail last week. “We can’t continue to work three or four days of overtime.”
Brown said in a statement that overtime is necessary to make up for the department’s vacancies.
“We continue to work to get to a point where overtime is not a necessity,” she said.
