Jan. 17—Maine State Police topped $10 million in overtime payouts last year, setting another record amid staffing challenges agency leaders hope will let up in the next year.
The agency paid about $8.5 million to its staff for overtime work in 2023. State data shows that the cost of overtime has been increasing for at least 10 years as troopers balance more responsibilities and staffing issues.
So the latest total isn’t surprising, said Lt. Col. Brian Scott, because he expected the numbers to increase after state workers received multiple raises.
While a recruiting push is underway, he estimates these costs won’t be curbed until fiscal year 2026, when those new recruits will have enough training to take on overtime duties.
State police paid $26.54 million in general wages in 2024, compared to $22.15 million in 2023, according to data from the Office of the State Controller. Ten years ago, the agency paid its staff about $10 million less overall.
But overtime amounts more than doubled from 2015 to 2024. From 2015 to 2021, overtime accounted for about 20% to 23% of overall wages paid. That increased in 2022 when they accounted for about 26% of all wages and about 27% in 2023 and 2024.
More complicated homicide investigations and a higher demand for special units, like the tactical team, can rack up overtime costs as well, Scott said in a phone interview Thursday. The Maine State Police also employ 23 K-9 team members who earn an extra hour of overtime per day for taking care of the dogs, he said.
Overtime is also doled out more to officers with seniority, Scott said. And because troopers earn time and a half, or double time when working on their days off, those who already have a higher base pay cost the agency more in overtime.
Over the past few years, some troopers earned over $100,000 in overtime on top of their regular paycheck, taking home about $200,000 a year in total.
The highest earner last year was Sgt. Jonathan Russell, who got promoted from corporal in July and earned about $153,000 in overtime on top of $98,991 in regular wages. This was his third straight year as the agency’s top paid employee. Trooper James Anstett was the second-highest earner, taking home $206,839 — 60% of which came from overtime work. Anstett also appeared as the third-highest overtime earner in 2023.
The top-earning staffers shift over the years, payroll data shows, with most employees cutting back on overtime hours after about three years of being one of the top earners.
Scott acknowledged this could be because troopers’ pensions are generally calculated by taking the average of their highest three years of pay. Some of the people who earned the most overtime in 2024 also retired that year, he said.
“What I hear from folks that are working a lot of overtime is that they’re trying to get their top three years in,” Scott said.
While working overtime can just be a perk for troopers’ paychecks, criminal justice research associate Tara Wheeler said having a system like this for their pensions will give officers security in the long run, as well as help recruit new officers.
Wheeler, who works for the University of Maine’s Catherine E. Cutler Institute, said in a phone interview Thursday that overtime pay is a common incentive for law enforcement agencies across the country. She said the increase within Maine State Police is in line with national trends, which show many police agencies relying on overtime to fight staffing shortages.
Since 2020, people nationwide are showing less interest in the profession overall, Wheeler said, which is not unique to law enforcement.
“You see this in nursing, especially around the COVID pandemic, and other emergency-type professions,” she said. “Overtime is an effective tool for meeting that need but also creating incentives to increase staffing levels.”
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