Letter Raises Alarm Over $300K LBPD Overtime Windfall

The executive director and co-founder of the Long Beach Reform Coalition (LBRC), Ian Patton, is questioning how a city police officer could legally collect nearly $300,000 in overtime pay on top of roughly $150,000 in base salary last year, making him the city’s highest-compensated employee.

In a letter to the Beachcomber, Patton said the numbers – documented by Transparent California’s 2023 and 2024 salary databases – “just seem completely nuts.” He pointed out that sustaining such pay levels would require an officer to work nearly 93 hours per week on average throughout the year.

"Using reasonable hypothetical figures to show how much an officer would have to work to generate triple pay with overtime, let's say that pay for every 10-hour regular shift is worth say $700 to him. Then for every regular shift there would have to be, on average, an additional 13.3-hour OT shift, which would be worth an additional $1,400 (at the time and a half pay rate),” Patton wrote.

Dan Miles, a colleague of Patton’s who first flagged the 2024 data, confirmed that the officer topped Transparent California’s 2024 city list: “The runner-up was a firefighter with almost as impressive an overtime feat. He finished 1st in 2023 and 2nd 2024.”

Transparent California shows both the officer and the firefighter repeated the performance in 2023, ranking in the top tier of city compensation before benefits.

The highest paid female was a Harbor employee at No. 50. She had no OT.

The Top Five Overtime Earners

A Beachcomber analysis of the 2024 Transparent California data shows the top five LBPD officers by overtime pay each cleared between $220,000 and $300,000 in OT alone. Here’s what that means in real hours:

• Officer A (OT: $300,000) → Required ~2,860 overtime hours on top of a 2,080-hour base schedule = ~93 hours/week.
• Officer B (OT: $275,000) → ~2,620 OT hours = ~88 hours/week.
• Officer C (OT: $250,000) → ~2,380 OT hours = ~83 hours/week.
• Officer D (OT: $235,000) → ~2,240 OT hours = ~79 hours/week.
• Officer E (OT: $220,000) → ~2,100 OT hours = ~76 hours/week.

Each of these officers worked well beyond the federal 60-hour limit that applies to safety-sensitive jobs in aviation and trucking.

How Widespread Is the Problem?

The Beachcomber’s review of the 2024 data shows this isn’t limited to a handful of extreme earners. By converting overtime pay back into hours, we found that at least 37 LBPD officers exceeded the 60-hour weekly workload threshold, with some approaching or surpassing 80 hours per week.

That means dozens of sworn officers on Long Beach streets were operating under fatigue levels that federal law deems unsafe for pilots and truck drivers – yet are deemed acceptable for armed law enforcement.

The MOU and Overtime Rules

The Long Beach Police Officers Association (POA) memorandum of understanding (MOU) sets overtime at time-and-a-half the base rate, which for a $150,000-a-year officer comes to about $105 an hour. On a standard 4/10 schedule, officers work four 10-hour shifts weekly. To reach these overtime levels, they would have to string together back-to-back 12- to 14-hour days for most of the year.

The MOU requires vacation to be taken in week-long blocks, not single days, which makes it easier for high-overtime officers to work long unbroken stretches. Nothing in the agreement caps annual overtime, leaving it wide open.

Public Safety Risks

Patton raised concerns not only about fiscal prudence but also officer and public safety. “I suppose it’s possible for someone to work 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., or midnight to noon, every single day for weeks and months on end,” he wrote. “But if that’s what’s going on, these officers are so zonked out of their minds they can barely drive straight.”

In an interview with the Beachcomber, Miles agreed: “It’s a public-safety issue when the city’s top-paid employees are essentially working double-time year-round. That’s not sustainable policing – it’s dangerous by design.”

Reporter’s Analysis

The numbers and policy framework bear out their skepticism. To earn $220,000 to $300,000 in overtime, the top five officers had to average between 76 and 93 hours a week. And the problem goes deeper: nearly 40 officers in 2024 exceeded 60-hour weeks.

That is not only physically punishing, it’s a liability risk for the city: fatigued officers are more prone to mistakes, accidents, and misconduct.

As a 20-year LAPD veteran and former deputy chief over personnel and training, this reporter saw firsthand how fatigue erodes performance. Exhausted officers make more mistakes, accidents, and poor judgments – putting both public safety and the city’s credibility at risk.

Overtime reliance is often a symptom of chronic understaffing, where it becomes cheaper for cities to load extra hours onto existing officers than to expand headcount and pensions. The result is what Patton and Miles highlight: a system that rewards extreme overwork while exposing the city to higher risks.

With no cap on overtime hours in the LBPD MOU, Miles said, “Long Beach is effectively paying for exhaustion – and calling it public safety.”

Recommendations from Dan Miles

Daniel Miles, who ran for Long Beach City Auditor in 2022 and has built a career as a chief financial officer, certified valuation analyst, and business tax expert, told the Beachcomber that the path forward is clear.

“This isn’t just a payroll quirk – it’s a governance failure,” he said. “As a city, we can’t ignore the risks that come from putting exhausted officers on the street while paying them like hedge fund managers. The numbers demand immediate corrective action.”

Miles offered three recommendations:

1. Independent Audit of Overtime – Conduct a line-by-line review of overtime claims to ensure they are accurate, justified, and free of abuse.

2. Fatigue and Performance Study – Commission an outside review of officer workload and fatigue levels, with a mandate to examine public-safety implications.

3. Reform in the Next MOU – Set a clear annual overtime cap per officer and strengthen staffing strategies to spread the workload rather than concentrate it in the hands of a few.

“I ran for City Auditor because I believe accountability is at the heart of good governance,” Miles said. “These overtime numbers show just how badly Long Beach needs it.”

Stephen Downing is a resident of Long Beach and a retired LAPD deputy chief.