The City of Cincinnati has spent more than $420,000 on police overtime since local George Floyd protests began, a memo from City Manager Patrick Duhaney says.
Most of that overtime came on May 29 and 30, the first two days of protests, according to the memo. On those days, large protests and marches were met with sizeable police response. In the late evening hours, police in riot gear fired flash-bang devices and used gas to disperse crowds after windows were broken in downtown, Over-the-Rhine and uptown.
The $426,361 overtime tab does not include regular hours worked by Cincinnati police or supplies used during the protests, Duhaney's memo says.
That likely isn't the end of the bill. The costs of further police activity related to later protests through the first week of June won't be available until June 23, when that pay period is tabulated.
Cincinnati City Council member David Mann has said that the overall overtime spending on policing during the protests could reach $3 million.
That added expense comes on top of the city's looming $73 million budget deficit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officers worked mandatory 12-hour shifts without days off during the protests on orders from Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, leading to the large amount of overtime spending.