The union president representing Denver sheriff’s deputies says that work conditions at the jail are the worst he’s seen in his 23 years on the job there—and that overtime pay for deputies is only adding to the problems. He adds that deputies have lost faith in the sheriff.
More than two years after the city promised to fix excessive overtime payouts at the city’s jails, Denver7 discovered deputies are still working long hours and cashing in on tens of thousands of dollars in overtime.
“We’ve gone through all that, and things are worse than before we started,” said union president Deputy Mike Jackson, who says the Denver Sheriff Department “just doesn’t have enough people to cover the positions.”
Deputy overtime in the first six months of 2017 adds up to nearly $7 million so far. Last year’s overtime payouts cost taxpayers a record $14 million.
While the sheriff says he believes overtime costs will end up being lower than last year’s Jackson says there’s no way that’s the case.
Jackson says he wants the sheriff to be elected by the people and not appointed by the mayor’s office, like the position is currently.
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