Occupy Austin costs APD more than $200,000
Monday, November 7, 2011 by Michael Kanin
As of October 22, the City of Austin had spent $207,211.21 to staff City Hall with police officers in response to the Occupy Austin event. According to figures provided to In Fact Daily by the Austin Police Department, this amounts to payment for roughly 4900 man hours of service in conjunction with the protest.
More than $110,000—at least 2300 hours worth–of that expense can be chalked up to officer overtime. Cpl. Anthony Hipolito of the APD public information office told In Fact Daily via email that these costs would be funded out of the department’s operating portion of the City of Austin’s general fund.
Officers policing Occupy Austin also collectively earned over 2,000 hours of comp time in the course of their duties. According to Hipolito, comp hours “go into a bank at 150% to be used at a later date.”
When asked to speculate about how much Occupy Austin could cost the city as it continues, Hipolito was frank. “We have no way to anticipate into the future for an event we don’t control,” he said.
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