You're not allowed to bring anything political to this board.

It is strictly for getting recommendations for plumbers and proctologists.

A jogger was recently attacked, which isn't uncommon. But this specific assault caught the media's attention so I'm sure what you saw today was a direct reaction to it.

Those two were likely working off-duty and being paid overtime. And given the assignment, their OT is likely coming from the Parks Dept budget. Since the police dept parks unit was disbanded in 2021 due to the on going staffing crisis, no officers are assigned to patrol the parks or greenbelts.

Financial resources are not something that is lacking. APD has over 340 vacancies, which doesn't include the reduction of 150 sworn made by the council a few years ago. So in reality, the department is down from a former authorized strength of ~1,900 to right at 1,500 last time I checked. But it drops every week.

The department is bursting at the seems with money from salary savings so overtime is limitless. They have to pay double overtime rates vs the normal 1.5 just to encourage officers to sign up to work extra shifts overnight.

The department created an email policy relating to overtime solicitations so folks can filter OT emails to their trash or a separate OT folder. I'd wager around 750-1,000 OT emails get sent out on a monthly basis soliciting officers to work various extra duty assignments.