Clevelanders paid a hefty tab for police overtime last year, covering roughly $27 million in extra hours that turned dozens of Division of Police jobs into six-figure gigs and pushed two patrol officers past $250,000 in total pay. The surge has lit a political fire under City Hall, where one side is pushing to hire faster and another is warning that simply juicing base pay will not make the overtime problem disappear overnight. The numbers come straight from municipal payroll lists and the city's own budget records.
Reporting by Cleveland.com dug through the payroll data and assembled a detailed overtime roster. The City of Cleveland's 2025 Budget Book lists a "uniformed overtime" line with roughly $26.9 million in unaudited 2024 totals, even as the administration penciled in a much smaller overtime figure for 2025. City budget documents spell out that gap and the internal transfers used to plug it.
Who Pulled The Biggest Checks
Documents obtained by Cleveland.com show just how far overtime boosted paychecks. In all, 779 city employees earned more than $10,000 in overtime, 155 cleared $50,000 or more, and 44 Division of Police members effectively doubled their salaries through extra hours. Thirty-three of those 44 were patrol officers, and two patrol officers logged about $176,000 and $171,000 in overtime alone. Once that overtime and paid details were stacked on top of base salaries in the mid-$80,000 range, their total compensation sailed past $250,000.
Why Overtime Stayed Sky High
City officials and police brass say there is no single switch that explains the overtime spike. They point to chronic vacancies, special-event details, court time and mutual-aid work that regularly pull officers beyond their standard shifts. The Bibb administration has argued that its RISE recruitment push, which includes pay hikes and $5,000 sign-on bonuses, is the long game to bring those costs down, paired with sped-up hiring and accelerated academy classes. Mayor Justin Bibb and other city leaders say they have shrunk the hiring pipeline so that new officers reach the streets faster, with Bibb claiming the time to hire dropped "from 18 months to four months." The City of Cleveland and ideastream have both documented those recruitment efforts and policy tweaks.
Council Presses For Answers
During budget hearings, Councilman Mike Polensek bluntly told administration officials that their overtime projections did not match the current staffing reality and pressed them to explain how new hiring would stop future overtime spikes. He and other council members signaled they will keep a tight grip on those payroll lines as cadet classes work through the academy and new officers hit the street. Spectrum News 1 captured those tense exchanges and council's demand that overtime forecasts reflect what actually happens on patrol.
For now, the payroll math gives fresh urgency to an old Cleveland dilemma over how to fund public safety: pour more money into base pay to recruit and retain officers, or live with steep overtime bills until vacancies finally shrink. City officials say they are trying to do both at once. The next few budget cycles will reveal whether faster hiring and higher salaries can tame the overtime line, or whether deeper structural changes will be needed to rein in premium pay.
