LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville Metro Council members pushed for a closer review of Louisville Metro Police overtime spending Wednesday during a proposed budget hearing.
The Metro Council budget hearings are part of the annual review process for Mayor Craig Greenberg's proposed billion-dollar spending plan before council members approve a final city budget later this year. Wednesday's hearing focused on the nearly $270 million proposed for LMPD, including about $22 million allocated for overtime.
Louisville Metro Police Chief Paul Humphrey answered more questions about police overtime after Jennifer Chappell, who represents District 15, told Humphrey to take a deeper look.
"I don't believe we've ever seen a breakdown of overtime by division, and breakdown of distribution on officer activity within their overtime hours," Chappell said. "I would really love to see that for fiscal year 2026 at least. And then also overtime by specialty unit."
The questioning follows recent WDRB reporting on overtime trends within LMPD.
Overtime cost taxpayers $66 million in the last three years. Between 2023-25, payroll records show 17 officers more than doubled their pay with overtime. Another 170 officers made at least $50,000 in overtime last year alone.
LMPD's contract with Metro Government includes a provision stating, "annual leave/holidays shall be computed as days worked for the purposes of overtime."
The clause in effect allows officers to leverage vacation for overtime without working extra minutes. The average employee went from making about $10,000 a year in overtime in 2023 to $25,000 last year — a 40% increase that outpaced wage gains.
Humphrey said he has made small changes to address the cost. He said he is working to make a deal with the union to hire part-time officers.
"Hire retired officers who don't want to put in 40-60 hours a week, but they're willing to put in some work," Humphrey said. "So hopefully that is something that we can get done at some point and present that to you, to save some money in this fiscal year as well."
Another major topic during the hearing was staffing.
For years, city leaders have publicly stated LMPD was short between 200 and 300 officers. But Humphrey said a recently completed staffing study found the department should have 1,136 sworn officers based on Louisville's population.
LMPD currently has 1,004 sworn officers, meaning the department is only down about 132 officers.
The department hopes to graduate 60 recruits from the police academy next year if the council approves the third recruit class proposed in the budget.
Metro Council has until the end of June to pass the full city budget.
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