Saskatoon police exceeded 2020 overtime budget by $784K, but finish year with surplus

Despite a hefty overtime bill, the Saskatoon Police Service managed to stay in the black last year.

The police service's 2020 year-end financial report says it ended the year $914,200 under budget. The service's total actual 2020 budget was $98.8 million, versus an expected $99.7 million.

The service said it received more money from the provincial and federal governments than budgeted. 

The province provided an extra $469,000, mainly targeted to Saskatchewan's combined traffic services unit.

The federal government provided $130,900 more than anticipated, linked to officers seconded to to provide training in policing techniques overseas.

In total, officers charged an extra $784,600 in overtime last year, the report says, more than 5,200 hours above the budgeted amount. Actual overtime worked amounted to 48,064 hours, versus an expected 42,841 hours.

"Investigative support had the largest amount of overtime hours at 10,661, which is due to higher serious and violent crime occurrences which began in 2019 and continued into 2020," the report says.

It notes the total overtime number was still well below overtime total in 2019, which came in at 53,814 hours.

The service said the overtime bill was offset by unfilled staff vacancies and other staff compensation savings.

While staff compensation was $456,500 over budget, total expenses were $713,600 under budget.

There were some additional expenses related to COVID-19, according to the report, including a $569,900 over-budget amount for extra cleaning of vehicles and police headquarters.

The police service saved $581,000 on travel and training expenses, as well as $267,000 on fuel costs, the report says.

The surplus money will be returned to the City of Saskatoon.