DPS troopers accrued $3.7 million in OT in first 3 months of Austin special enforcement

In the first three months after the Texas Department of Public Safety began a special patrol assignment in Austin — first in partnership with the city and then, after the city backed out, on orders from Gov. Greg Abbott — the department spent $3.7 million in overtime wages, according to payroll records the American-Statesman obtained through a public records request.

The pay records provide a deeper look into the DPS's increased presence in Austin and reveal in hard numbers the cost to Texans for the state to beef up policing measures in the capital city as local officials deal with an officer shortage.

The overtime records show that through Aug. 15, the DPS averaged nearly $1.2 million in overtime a month for those first three months. They reflect a three-month period from the day the partnership started on March 30, minus a month and a half that it was put on hold when Abbott diverted troopers to the border.

In total, troopers worked more than 61,000 overtime hours.

Some local state representatives expressed concerns about how much the state is spending to provide policing in Austin, especially since Mayor Kirk Watson canceled the city's involvement in July over concerns about the troopers' enforcement standards and tactics.

"Theoretically, public dollars spent on public safety, you consider that a good investment," state Rep. Lulu Flores, D-Austin, said. "Since the city is no longer requesting (DPS help), then perhaps it's not money being well spent."

The "partnership," as it was called when Watson first announced it, is essentially dead. While the DPS continues to operate in the city through its Austin Violent Crime Task Force, this is without any guidance from the city or the Austin Police Department. That represents a contrast from before, when the DPS worked with the Police Department to determine the areas with a high volume of 911 calls and incidents.

Abbott has regularly expressed his support of deploying more DPS troopers to Austin, posting multiple times on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the troopers are helping address crime in the city. Abbott's office said the troopers have made thousands of arrests, including 1,400 on felony charges, and seized 1.75 million doses of fentanyl.

In a presentation last month, the DPS provided data that show violent crime in Austin is down 18% from the four-week average before the partnership began.

"As the City of Austin reduced their police force, Gov. Abbott deployed DPS troopers to protect and serve to ensure the safety of Texans in our capital city," Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott's press secretary, said in a statement. "Public safety is a top priority for the Governor, and he will continue to deploy all resources to keep the streets of Austin and communities across our state safe."

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Breaking down DPS overtime

The pay records show that nearly 950 state troopers have worked overtime as part of the Austin task force. Over the first three months, those with the highest workloads made anywhere from $14,000 to $24,000 in overtime wages.

The DPS declined multiple requests for an interview to discuss certain aspects of the Austin task force. The department did provide the Statesman with a copy of its official overtime policies, which show employees are paid time and a half for working more than eight hours in a day or for more than 40 hours in a week.

Under DPS policy, some executive and administrative staff are exempt from overtime policies, meaning they are not eligible for overtime. Those who aren't exempt could either be commissioned or noncommissioned staff. Commissioned staff, which is any sworn law enforcement officer, can work up to 320 overtime hours a year. Noncommissioned staff, which includes all other staff who are not licensed law enforcement officers, can work up to 160 overtime hours a year.

Trying to offset nearly 330 unfilled positions, Austin police have worked a lot of overtime themselves. During a recent meeting of the city's Public Safety Commission, the Police Department said that since June 17 it had spent $30 million on overtime in this fiscal year — more than any year since 2018. The fiscal year goes through September.

Additionally, the department began offering double pay, instead of the usual time and a half, for anyone who works a patrol shift from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. or takes an overnight shift at the 911 call center.

Jeff Greenwalt, Austin police chief of staff, said the DPS presence in the city helped deter crime by aiding officers in responding to calls during the staffing shortage.

"We have a responsibility to keep our community safe, and this has become increasingly difficult with our short staffing," Greenwalt said. "Their continued presence within Austin, even after our partnership ended, has provided assistance to our officers as we go through this unprecedented and national challenge to fill our ranks."

Watson: Trooper incident with 10-year-old not only reason for axing Austin, DPS partnership

What happened with the Austin and DPS partnership?

Watson announced the partnership on March 27 after striking a deal with Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The DPS began patrols in Austin three days later on March 30.

This came two months into the state legislative session and shortly after a lawmaker, state Sen. Drew Sparks, R-Muenster, blasted Watson after a woman from his district was assaulted in downtown Austin by a man whom police described as transient.

On May 13, about a month and a half later, Abbott suspended the partnership and diverted troopers from Austin to the U.S.-Mexico border for his multibillion-dollar border initiative, Operation Lone Star.

At the end of June, it was announced that the partnership would resume July 2. But just 10 days later, Watson ended the partnership after a 10-year-old boy told a TV station that troopers pulled out and pointed their weapons at him during a traffic stop in which he was a passenger in a vehicle. Body camera footage released later showed that they did not point their weapons at the child.

The incident built on existing concerns about the DPS's increased presence. After Watson announced the partnership, local activists immediately objected over concerns that the DPS would overpolice communities of color. Data then showed that through the first few weeks, 9 out of 10 people arrested by the DPS in Austin were Black or Latino.

Pulling rank over Watson, Abbott announced after the incident involving the young boy that not only would the DPS continue its patrol strategies, but that the state would deploy 30 more troopers to Austin. That brought the total number of troopers devoted to Austin to 130.

Watch: Bodycam footage at center of Austin police and Texas DPS breakup

What do state leaders think about the amount?

Local state leaders have varying opinions about the millions the state is spending on overtime for the DPS troopers in Austin.

Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said the overtime might be required because Operation Lone Star has caused the DPS to divert much of its personnel to the border. Howard said the DPS has historically provided support to law enforcement across the state, including in cities like Austin, and that there's an "expectation" that the DPS will be able to help keep communities safe.

"If they do not have sufficient resources to make that happen, without utilizing overtime, I would suggest that what needs to be looked at is the funding of Operation Lone Star and getting some of those funds and those personnel back into keeping Texas communities safe as opposed to what appears too many of us to be a political stunt at the border," Howard told the Statesman.

Mahaleris, from Abbott's office, said that without Operation Lone Star every criminal arrested and all drugs seized as part of Abbott's border initiative would have made their way into the state.

Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, echoed some of these concerns about Operation Lone Star and said Abbott is more concerned with "political stunts" than "solutions."

If Abbott wanted to improve public safety in Austin, Talarico said, the governor would invest in the Austin Police Department, listen to community members who say they don't want the DPS patrols in the city and put more money into programs aimed at preventing crime.

"It's hypocritical for our state government to claim to know more about public safety than local leaders do because local leaders are the ones on the ground, trying to make our communities safer, while the Texas state government allows weapons of war to run rampant across our state (and) have continually underfunded mental health resources," Talarico said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: DPS troopers' overtime pay for Austin patrols cost $3.7M in 3 months