The Denver Sheriff Department has paid nearly $5 million on overtime so far this year, and it’s on track to spend far more on extra hours for deputies than it has in any year since at least 2010.
Critics say the rising overtime costs are the result of years of mismanagement, and the mistakes are taking a toll on the department.
Not only does overtime come at a financial cost, there also is a human toll as deputies suffer from burnout and supervisors are distracted by the need to fill shifts. The burnout can lead to misconduct, including use of excessive force when a deputy snaps at an inmate.
“If you’re tired, you’re on edge. And if you’re on edge, you’re not going to tolerate abusive behavior toward you,” said Joseph Sandoval, a criminal justice professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “That creates a very volatile situation.”
As of Aug. 30, the Denver Sheriff Department had paid $4.9 million of overtime to deputies who have worked a total of 105,030 extra hours during the first eight months of 2014, according to a Denver Post analysis of data from the sheriff’s department. One deputy has worked 1,046 extra hours this year.
The annual overtime spending increased more than 40 percent in 2013 over 2010, when the department paid a little more than $4 million, according to the department data.
Between 2012 and 2013, overtime spending increased from $4 million to $5.7 million.
Last year was an especially busy year for the sheriff’s department.
The department opened a new, seven-story building at the Smith Road complex to replace six old buildings, interim Sheriff Elias Diggins said.
The new facility required more workers to operate, but the department did not hire new deputies. Instead, it spent $640,000 on overtime to run it.
At the same time, the city saw a surge in inmates, forcing the department to open a previously shuttered building at the Smith Road complex to ease crowding, Diggins said. It, too, was manned by deputies working overtime.
But deputies assigned to the downtown jail accrue the most overtime. City officials acknowledge that the jail does not have enough deputies on staff to run without significant overtime.
Downtown deputies worked an estimated three-fourths of the 113,798 overtime hours in 2013, according to data provided by the sheriff’s department.
The downtown detention center’s overtime budget has grown steadily, reaching a nearly 100 percent increase since it opened in 2010.
The downtown jail’s higher inmate population contributes to the larger overtime budget. Everyone booked into the Denver jail system passes through its doors.
The new jail was built when Denver voters approved a 2005 referendum to borrow $378 million to build the new jail and a new courthouse as well as make improvements at the Smith Road complex.
The new jail was needed to ease crowding, but critics say the city planned poorly when it estimated the number of inmates who would be housed there and the number of deputies needed to watch those inmates.
Even city officials acknowledge the error in planning for the number of deputies the new jail would need.
A failed relief effort
At the time, the city thought it could operate the county jail and the new jail with the same staffing levels it had, said Daelene Mix, a safety department spokeswoman.
“As time progressed, gaps in its ability to do so became clear,” she said.
There also was a failed effort to bring relief in 2013 when the department shifted 15 deputies from the records unit to the cell pods.
Those 15 deputies were reassigned, and the department tried to hire civilians to staff the records unit.
But the job description posted for those records positions set the qualifications too low, Mix said. No applicants were qualified.
So, the sheriff’s department began filling those positions through overtime, and it continues to do so. In 2013, the department spent $1.5 million to staff its records unit, Mix said.
The failure to anticipate the need for more deputies for the downtown jail is one more chapter in the department’s history of terrible management when it comes to manpower, said Mark Pogrebin, a criminal justice professor at the University of Colorado Denver.
“They should have had this argument years ago and not waited until it was a crisis,” he said about staffing levels.
Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown expressed shock and frustration when he heard about the millions that have been spent on overtime.
“That’s a signal something is wrong, and it should have been corrected,” Brown said. “That’s when you come to the mayor and say you need help.
“I don’t understand. It’s a lack of leadership, and that drives me crazy.”
The overtime adds to the burden of downtown deputies, whose regular shifts already are too long, Pogrebin and Sandoval said.
At the Downtown Detention Center, deputies work 12-hour shifts with many guarding up to 64 inmates alone during that period. It’s not unusual for a sergeant to require a deputy to work an extra four hours to fill a vacancy in the next shift, Diggins said.
Sergeants send out available overtime slots two weeks in advance to seek volunteers, Diggins said. If there aren’t enough volunteers, the sergeants start asking deputies to work. If open shifts remain, then overtime becomes mandatory.
That means a person could be inside a jail pod for 16 hours with little relief and scheduled to return to work less than 12 hours after leaving.
Corrections experts said the 12-hour shifts worked by deputies at the downtown jail already are a problem. Adding extra hours to those shifts is too much.
“Overtime is very dangerous when you work that many hours in a high-stress job,” Pogrebin said. “Twelve hours in a hot house like that is a stressing job. It’s way too much.”
Staffing problems
Overall, the sheriff’s department is operating with about 20 people fewer than its authorized strength of 700 deputies, Diggins said.
Add to the shortages the usual staffing problems created by sick leave, vacations, in-service training and disciplinary suspensions, and the department’s sergeants, who are front-line supervisors, spend hours trying to fill gaps.
That, too, adds to disciplinary problems.
This month, Independent Monitor Nick Mitchell said sergeants were spending so much time finding people to fill gaps in the schedules that they rarely walk the jail floor to supervise deputies.
A lack of supervision prevents sergeants from identifying problem deputies, which allows misconduct to escalate, Mitchell said in a letter addressed to Denver City Councilman Paul Lopez.
Mitchell cited examples given by three unnamed officers, who said sergeants spend nearly 90 percent of their time filling shifts.
“The DSD is currently having difficulty filling shifts, and the sergeant must spend most of his workday calling off-duty officers to try to get them to cover overtime shifts for other officers who are sick or on vacation,” the letter said.
Changes discussed
Stephanie O’Malley, the safety department’s executive director, said she recognizes the problems an overworked staff creates. As part of the effort to reform the sheriff’s department, changes are being discussed.
Already, Mayor Michael Hancock has asked for 47 new employees, including 42 deputies, at a cost of $3.2 million in his 2015 budget request.
It’s unclear if that will be enough people to significantly reduce the overtime budget.
Asked by The Post what the department’s ideal authorized strength should be, Diggins only smiled. He did not answer the question.
Also, the city has a team analyzing staffing and hours worked to find solutions.
That team’s findings will become part of the overall reform effort.
Already, a deputy-led wellness committee has requested a move to 10-hour shifts at the downtown jail. That request is under consideration, Diggins and O’Malley said.
Until changes are made, deputies will continue racking up thousands of hours and millions of dollars of overtime.
Without enough deputies on staff, the department has no choice but to pay overtime, O’Malley said. Jails simply cannot be left with a short staff.
“When you don’t have the full complement of personnel, your next-best solution is to have overtime,” she said.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips
Reporter Zahira Torres contributed to this story.
A look at denver sheriff department overtime
2010 — $4.05 million
2011 — $3.86 million
2012 — $4.05 million
2013 — $5.68 million
2014 (as of Aug. 30) — $4.98 million
