City of New Haven
Paul Bass File Photo
Pressed into extra duty: Top earner Raul Pereira (center) at hostage scene.
With the police department understaffed amid surging violent crime and demands for walking cops, New Haven paid 17 cops more than $200,000 in 2021.
Those 17 cops were among the 20 highest-compensated government employees last year, according to a list released to the Independent Thursday in response to a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request.
Officer Raul Pereira topped the list with $302,212.72 in total earnings, including overtime.
In the second highest-earning spot was Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey, who was the only top city official or non-cop or non-firefighter in the top 20.
The list reflects in part an ongoing shortage of police officers due to retirements and resignations. The homicide rate has shot upward in the past two years, as have public requests for more walking beat cops, even as Covid-19 sidelined officers and squeezed the department’s ranks even further.
The Board of Alders has pressed the department to rein in overtime costs. The department has meanwhile worked hard to recruit new officers and field training classes to replenish the ranks.
Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes, a retired police captain who has chaired the aldermanic Public Safety Committee for six years, emphasized that the issue raised by the chart is the need for more officers.
“Many officers talk about being held over for a second shift. If they work extra, they have to be paid for it,” Antunes said.
Overtime duty pays officers time and a half. The annual compensation totals also include pay for extra-duty work, for which the city gets reimbursed by employers hiring the cops, noted city human resources chief Stephen Librandi.
“We have a number of folks in public safety who’re working 70+ hours a week in order to protect public safety. I admire their dedication to this community,” city Chief Administrative Officer Regina Rush-Kittle, who oversees the police and fire departments, stated in response to the top-20 listing.
“Rebuilding the force to the budgeted number of officers will allow us to reduce some overtime costs, and I’m thankful for the work the Chief has done in this area. Earlier today two more recruits were sworn in, bringing us up to 30 new recruits recently sent to the academy.”
According to the most recently published city monthly financial report, the police department had 45 vacancies among police officers, 11 vacancies among detectives, and 10 among sergeants as of Nov. 30. Earlier this week, the city promoted seven officers and detectives to the role of sergeant.