Several Worcester Police Department employees received overtime pay in 2023, with some who made between $40,000 and just over $70,000 last year, according to payroll data obtained by MassLive.
Of the top earners in the police department in 2023, none received overtime pay. Neither former Chief Steven Sargent nor Interim Chief Paul Saucier earned any overtime pay last year.
The highest-paid police employee to earn overtime pay in 2023 was Capt. Christopher Curtis, the city’s fifth-highest earner. Curtis made $9,612 in overtime, while he earned $254,668 overall in gross pay.
The police employee who earned the most overtime pay in 2023 was Sgt. Justin Bennes. The 102nd-highest earner, Bennes earned $73,379 in overtime, $187,474 in gross pay, and $2,729 in detail pay.
Officer John Denio was the second-highest in police overtime, at $71,142. Denio was the 70th-highest earner overall, and made $199,543.
The 69 city employees ahead of Denio made over $200,000 in 2023.
After Denio, three employees — Officer Michael Mason Jr., Sgt. Stephen Roche and Officer Sean Lovely — made under $66,000 and over $60,000 in overtime.
Four employees — Sgt. Jason Gaumond, Lt. Donna Brissette, Lt. Gary Quitadamo and Officer Patrick Hanlon — made between $50,000 and just under $59,000 in overtime last year. Nine officers made between $40,000 and $49,900 in overtime last year.
The city’s highest earners from years past, all police department employees, received smaller amounts in overtime. Lt. John Towns, who was the top earner in 2021, made $38,748 in overtime. Capt. Matthew D’Andrea, the highest-paid city employee in 2022, earned $37,665 in overtime.
Fiscal projections
Overtime spending across the city’s departments is usually needed “due to vacancies in positions, absences requiring coverage or incidents requiring continued activity,” a spokesperson for the city told MassLive in an email in June 2023.
Some degree of overtime is necessary so that city departments “can address unforeseen/unpredictable workload or events.”
Around the same time in 2023, city Auditor Robert Stearns released a report projecting that over half of the city’s projected overtime spending in fiscal 2023 would go toward the police department, at more than $18.4 million, which combined overtime and paid detail.
Sterns’ projection came close. In total, the city spent $18.5 million when paid detail and overtime are combined, according to data provided by a city spokesperson. Overtime cost $7.3 million.
In the years between 2020 and 2023, the Worcester Police Department has exceeded its approved budget for overtime spending, according to city budget documents.
The amounts varied from a little less than $200,000 over the approved amount in fiscal 2021 to more than $1.3 million over the approved amount in fiscal 2022.
The police overtime spending was more in 2023 due to several special programs, including the body camera program, Taser trainings and a Field Training Officer Program, Lt. Sean Murtha told MassLive in June 2023.
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How one Worcester officer put OT in the news
One officer brought more scrutiny and attention to police overtime and detail earnings since his arrest in August 2022.
Colby Turner faces charges in Worcester Superior Court in connection with stealing $53,000 of off-duty detail and overtime pay for shifts prosecutors claim he did not work.
He is facing six counts of larceny over $1,200, one count of forgery, one count of making a false claim to a government agency and one count of being a common and notorious thief.
In a July 22, 2022, email to all Worcester Police Department employees sent the day before he was placed on administrative leave, Turner said he was innocent and was a whistleblower, MassLive reported in March 2023.
His lawyer, Hank Brennan, said Turner’s arrest was in retaliation for Turner reporting departmental “improprieties.”
Before the police department pursued charges against Turner, his attorney, Hank Brennan, claims Turner “became aware someone was manipulating his detail records,” according to court documents.
Turner was among 15 police officers suspended by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Commission.
In connection with the case, he pleaded not guilty to six counts of larceny over $1,200, one count of forgery, one count of making a false claim to a government agency, and one count of being a common and notorious thief. on March 23, 2023.
Just over one year later, on March 29, 2024, Turner faced questioning about extensive requests to subpoena city documents for his defense, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
Brennan told a Worcester judge that the charges against his client can’t be fully understood without more city documents on details for all officers between 2021 and 2022, the period from which that Turner’s charges stem.
