Lacking a full staff, the Knoxville Police Department is paying millions of dollars in overtime to its officers just to keep a full force on the streets at any given time.
Understaffing led the department to pay $2.12 million in overtime last year. That’s nearly five times as much as they paid in overtime just five years ago. In 2014, the department paid out $425,096 in overtime.
"That’s a lot, that’s a lot. The Mayor has never told me that we need to scale back. We understand that public safety is very important," said Knoxville Police Chief Eve Thomas. "We will actually staff with overtime positions so we make sure we have the number of officers, we have those beats covered. That’s very important because our core function is to answer those calls that come in."
KPD is authorized to employ 416 people. Right now, there are only 380.
10News requested a monthly breakdown of overtime pay for patrol officers over the past two and a half years. The data shows the problem is only getting worse. Each month, KPD pays more in overtime than the corresponding months from previous years.
KPD’s overtime budget for the past fiscal year was around $1.3 million. They ended up surpassing that budget by more than $800,000 in 2018.
"We were over a bit but we have those unfilled positions we can pull that money from as well," said Thomas. "I never expected not to be able to fill all our positions, to be running academy classes so small. I guess it’s a sign of the times."
Chief Eve Thomas has been at KPD for decades. She’s led the department for just under a year. She says if every officer who is eligible to retire chose to leave, the department would be faced with an additional 60 to 70 openings. Recent recruiting classes have been smaller than ever.
"The past two years we’ve run an academy of nine where we had requisition for 35," said Thomas. "I never expected to be below our authorized strength like we are now."
Chief Thomas says KPD is exploring putting up billboards and making TV commercials in an attempt to recruit more officers. Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero also announced the department’s starting salary will increase in an attempt to lure more job candidates.