Holly MatkinPortland, OR – Fifteen Portland Police Bureau (PPB) employees earned over $200,000 apiece during the department’s last fiscal year.
The highest earner – a police captain who has since retired – made a total of $265,225, while the next three highest earners make more in overtime than they did in base wages, The Oregonian reported.
“I’m retiring with the same benefits that every person who works at the police and fire bureaus is entitled to,” retired PPB Captain Mark Kruger told the paper. “I didn’t get some special deal. The only reason I had that amount in there is because I didn’t take a lot of sick time over 26 years of service, and I had a whole lot of unused vacation time.”
Officers earned over $4 million in overtime in the month of June alone due to the riots and protests that erupted in the wake of the May 25 in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The PPB’s fiscal year wrapped up in the end of June, so the figures outlined in the wage report do not include the nearly four months of nightly rioting that have taken place throughout Portland since that time, The Oregonian reported.
The list of pay figures included all civilian workers and sworn officers who serve the department.
Fourteen police employees made more than now-former PPB Chief Jami Resch, who stepped back to the rank of assistant chief in June.
A total of 728 of the PPB’s 1,272 employees earned over $100,000, The Oregonian reported.
“There’s a lot of people working a lot of hours because there’s just a lot of work to be done, and we’re limited on the number of cops we have,” PPB Sergeant Ken Duilio told the paper.
Sgt. Duilio was the third highest-paid officer at the PPB this past fiscal year, according to The Oregonian.
A record number of officers retired from the force in August, and another group is expected to follow suit in January.
The city also plans to cut 84 PPB officer positions on July 1 of next year, The Oregonian reported.
“When you’re undermanned and understaffed, one way to respond is to hire people on overtime,” Sgt. Duilio explained. “You take one person and turn them into two people, so to speak.”
He said that officers who work overtime should be appreciated for sacrificing even more of their time to help protect the city.
“As a supervisor, we should be thankful that we have people who are willing to dedicate their time to do that work…though we also need to look out for them and make sure people are keeping a proper work-life balance,” Sgt. Duilio told The Oregonian.
“I really appreciate the people who step up and are willing to take away time from their family,” he added. “The city should be grateful.”
