As calls to defund the police grow, articles like this in The Boston Globe help us understand WHY this defunding is so important. The article describes payroll abuses that have gone on for years at the Boston Police Department. Take for example Lieutenant TImothy Kervin who in 2005 was found to have fraudulently reported his hours on details. That year Kervin brought home $237,000 but Instead of being fired, today 15 years later, Kervin is THE highest paid city official in Boston bringing home $355,000 a year! (Note how I don’t use the word “earn.”)
As calls for police defunding gain momentum nationwide, a Globe review of city payment records shows that the police payroll has jumped dramatically in the past decade, increasing by $125 million — or 43 percent — since 2011. Overtime growth has been even more significant, with an additional $35.5 million — 84 percent — spent over the same period.
Overall the reporters found...
The average pay for police department employees last year was $127,094, including nearly $30,000 in overtime and $20,000 in detail pay, in addition to a base salary. The tally includes civilian workers and sworn personnel.
By contrast, the average pay for a Boston Public Schools teacher was $87,787.
The article examines how police pad hours by working overtime, lucrative police details, education incentives and appearing in court—a fifteen minute court appearance yield 4 hours of overtime. And it’s not illegal...
For veteran officers well-versed in the department’s inner workings, there are a variety of ways to pad one’s salary, according to former Boston police lieutenant Tom Nolan.
Nolan, who now teaches at Emmanuel College, said that at least some of the top earners manage to collect such high sums of pay by gaming the system; what they’re doing isn’t necessary illegal or in violation of rules, procedures, or contract provisions, he said. “But like with anything, there are loopholes, and they can be exploited.”
The article calls out other abuses of a couple of the top paid cops including those of Windell Josey, who took home $325,187 in 2019 and was charged with assaulting his girlfriend—the charges were dismissed but he was suspended, and John “Jack” Danilecki, the city’s second-highest-paid official last year at $348,055, who is under investigation for his behavior towards protesters at last year’s Straight Pride parade. These actions were captured on video and compiled by Christopher Schmidt.
Christopher Schmidt, a Cambridge resident who gathered social media footage of Danilecki from the day in question and compiled it in a lengthy online post. “Every time I’d turn around, there’d be another video where I’d be like, ‘Wait, that’s him again.’ ”
A spokesman for BPD said Danilecki was under investigation, but records show he received a commendation for actions on that day. (The Schmidt link is well worth a look!)
The article has a great interactive graphic where you can look a the income breakdown for the top 100 officers. Really well done data visualizations, and worth a look.
Mayor Marty Walsh commented on the article in today’s Globe, keeping it vague and defending overtime practices.
“On the surface, obviously, it bothers you, and as mayor, certainly, you would like to get overtime down in a lot of different places,” Walsh said in an interview. But, he added, “my focus is to make sure that we’re keeping our residents safe.”
Many commenters on the original story called for using trained civilians for details, a measure that would save hundreds of thousands a year. Seems like a good idea to me!
Then I chose a name from the top 100 at random—David Juba—and did a quick google search. Wow! According the the Patriot Ledger, Juba was involved in an illegal steroid use in the early 2000’s and suspended for 80 days—not only for using steroids but for lying about it. The Boston Globe published an editorial on the steroid investigation (the results of which were released by BPD over the 4th of July weekend to make sure that no one saw them).
In 2009 then police commissioner Edward Davis commented:
Davis acknowledges that termination, not suspensions, would have been a more "appropriate punishment" for some of the officers who not only used illegal drugs but also lied about such use to the department's anti-corruption investigators. But like his predecessors, Davis says he is handcuffed by an aggressive union, contractual language that metes out light punishment for first-time drug violations, and labor arbitrators who overturn long suspensions and terminations.
Juba was one of those who liked, and should have been fired according to the Commissioner. Again we see the pervasive, monolithic power of the police unions.