PHOENIX — Phoenix police spent about $98 million on overtime in a single fiscal year, a surge city leaders and union representatives attribute largely to a department that is hundreds of officers short and still trying to keep minimum staffing on the street.
City officials told the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee that Phoenix remains short roughly 500 officers, a gap that pushes mandatory overtime to cover patrol and other essential functions.
Department leaders have described overtime as falling into two broad categories: mandatory overtime, which accounts for the vast majority of total overtime, and discretionary overtime tied to operational needs and special assignments. In a subcommittee briefing, Phoenix police leadership said mandatory overtime accounts for 81% of total overtime, with discretionary overtime at 19%, and noted that minimum staffing is the largest driver within those categories.
A city financial review also found that nearly 40% of overtime in the fiscal year was directly linked to staffing shortages, with officer call-outs as the next-largest factor. Union leaders warned that when shifts cannot be filled, the impact is not just budgetary. They argue it creates safety risks for both officers and the public, while extended hours raise familiar concerns about fatigue, burnout, and delayed response capability.
Phoenix officials say the overtime problem has been building for years alongside recruitment and retention challenges. The department reported increased applicant activity in 2024 compared to prior years, but attrition remains a hurdle, with city data indicating about 30% of recruits over the past three years dropped out before completing the process.
The issue hits home for Doug Larsen, a retired police officer who launched SAFEGUARD Recruiting in 2021. He has helped numerous agencies regain staffing with a fraction of the cost of overtime.
“While it’s true, staffing is an officer and community safety issue, the funds needed to fill beats with overtime are crippling to cities, and our solution solves that quickly,” Larsen told us.
Larsen said that recent clients were down 300 officers and, within a year, had made up the difference, using a system that Larsen and his team built from the ground up, leveraging their law enforcement experience.
When asked what it would cost Phoenix to fully staff up, Larsen said there is some variation depending on the agency’s current processes, but their average cost in 2025 was $1,000 per hire.
That’s a savings of $97.5 million dollars per year for Phoenix alone, which begs the question, what’s happening?
Larsen wouldn’t comment on the situation in Phoenix, other than that he has offered to help and will do so for any agency facing similar issues.
