# Boston Police Department punishes officers for working too much



## Nachtwächter (Dec 9, 2005)

*Boston Police Department punishes officers for working too much*

2/17/2006, 1:25 a.m. ET 
*The Associated Press*









BOSTON (AP) - The Boston Police Department has punished 82 officers since August for violating departmental guidelines on how many hours they are allowed to work, officials said.

The disciplines have ranged from verbal warnings to five-day suspensions, depending on the number of violations, officials said.

Many officers supplement their paychecks by working lucrative private security jobs or road construction details, but they are barred from working more than 16 hours in a day, 96 hours in a week or 320 hours in a month out of concern that they will be too tired during their regularly scheduled work shift, thus compromising public safety.

"Obviously, we are concerned with people working a lot of hours," said Superintendent Al Goslin, head of the department's Internal Affairs Division. "It's a health and safety issue as far as we're concerned."

The hour limits were rarely enforced before August, but improvements to the department's computer payroll system made tracking hours easier and resulted in the crackdown. No one was disciplined for exceeding the limits in the first eight months of last year.

By working details and private jobs, many officers can push their salaries well over $100,000 annually.

While some individual officers have expressed anger at the crackdown, Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole said union officials agreed not to fight the move provided that no one was punished for violations prior to Aug. 31.

A department wide memo also was issued outlining the enforcement plans.

Boston Globe investigations have found that in the past some officers skipped out on court dates to instead work details, resulting in the dismissal of criminal cases, while some officers were paid to work details in separate places at the same time.


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## SOT (Jul 30, 2004)

I love how the Boston Globe actually quotes and promotes it's own BS news stories in their newest news story.


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