The Houston Police Department has spent over 31% of its overtime budget for fiscal year 2026-27, city officials say.
What this means
During a Nov. 2 Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting, Finance Director Melissa Dubowski presented information on public safety’s overtime spending for FY 2026-27, which began July 1.
As of Sept. 30, the city spent $6.7 million of its $21.2 million overtime budget, Dubowski said. The department had a total of 5,438 officers when the report was compiled.
“For HPD, they’re pretty close to running on budget when you look at the total bottom line for the department,” Dubowski said.
Other funding sources help reimburse overtime spending, including the Houston Airport System and the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO). So far for FY 2026-27, HPD has been reimbursed $1.08 million from the two systems or roughly 32%.
Diving deeper
HPD Executive Chief Thomas Hardin said the department has seen more cadets in recent classes, which helps with overtime.
“We have about 218 cadets split among three classes in the academy right now,” he said. “We’re very excited to continue to add officers.”
Council member Fred Flickinger said that with the number of officers added to the department, he expected the amount of overtime spending to be smaller.
“The World Cup was in July,” Hardin said. “Even though we were reimbursed for World Cup operations, the issue we had was a number of community events: the July Fourth holiday, the 250 Celebration. We had a number of community events.”
One more thing
Hardin said overtime spending can be unpredictable because of weather, public assemblies and other events.
