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SF Examiner
Editor
Nov. 1, 2011
Dear Editor:
Kudos
to reporter Joshua Sabatini for his illuminating Oct.
31, 2011 SF Examiner article on the huge overtime pay
that off-duty "10B" police officers earn by charging
private clients like ballgame and party promoters. The
top "moonlighter" last year made $82,695 in overtime
alone, certainly far more than I make owning and
operating a small business, and far in excess of San
Franciscan's $56,000 average income. What Sabatini
unfortunately doesn't investigate is the actual present
cost to taxpayers for the City to administer the 10B
program. In 1996 the City Budget Analyst found that "the
actual cost is in many cases higher than the amount
collected." In that year the City paid 7.3 million to
administer the program, while they only collected 43% of
it, or 3.2 million. (In addition, 10B officers make free
use of taxpayer-funded police patrol vehicles, radios,
and weapons.) Isn't it time for the City to follow the
Analyst's recommendation for an updated audit? More
importantly, isn't it time for the Police Commission to
do away with the 10B program and concentrate on getting
more officers into the privately-paid,
commission-regulated Patrol Special Police program?
Those officers work fresh during normal hours, yet
charge only about 1/3 the hourly rate that the 10B
officers charge, with no additional 20% administrative
charge levied on top of that, as the 10B program
imposes. The only cost to taxpayers for that program is
a mere pittance paid for commission regulation that is
often burdensome on the Patrol Specials but favorable
toward the 10B program.
Ann Grogan, J.D.
Client of the Patrol Specials in Glen Park
PROOF
DOCUMENTS SEE:
-- According to the NY Times on
March 26, 2010, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported that in 2009, SFPD officers' average hourly
wage was 63% higher than the national average.
-- http://www.sfgov.org/site/budanalyst_page.asp?id=5192
-- Oct. 11, 2010 Response of Ann Grogan to the
Massachusetts Study of the Patrol Specials, see
footnotes on pages 18 and 25.
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