Police pay doubles for NCAA games

By Anne Halliwell

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The UK Police Department doubled its overtime costs during the aftermath of the four NCAA games this year, compared to the costs incurred during 2012.

The cost of police officers’ overtime during this season’s NCAA Tournament run totaled about $45,500, UK police chief Joe Monroe said.

That number contrasts the 2012 run, which cost UK police about $22,000 in overtime compensation paid to officers.

“The biggest difference this year was that it was over four nights,” Monroe said. He added that if the costs were broken down, the nightly costs would be similar to those in 2012.

The Lexington Fire Department logged 731.6 hours of overtime among the four evenings, said Harold Hoskins, the fire department’s assistant chief of operations, in an email to the Kentucky Kernel.

The hours were split between firefighters earning overtime and compensatory pay, Hoskins said, and the hours totaled nearly $35,000 in compensation.

Additionally, several on-duty firefighters were assigned to cover the celebrations, but those employees’ pay was not included in the overtime calculations, Hoskins said.

Although an open records request filed by the Kernel for the Lexington Police Department’s overtime during the NCAA Tournament games was not fulfilled by publication, Lexington police had allocated plenty of manpower well in advance of the celebrations, said Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts.

“We’re very conservative throughout the year in using our overtime,” Roberts said. “So when we do run into a situation … like this, we’re not into trouble.”

UK police anticipated that each night would be fairly lengthy based on the Louisville game on March 28, which Monroe said gave them an accurate assessment of how the following nights would go.

“We looked at our response the first night and adjusted,” Monroe said.

Roberts said that Lexington police’s collaborations with Kentucky State Police, UK police and the sheriff’s

department were successful in keeping the nights controlled and safe.

“For the most part, the crowd was well-behaved …  that was nice, to have people saying thank you,” Roberts said.

Of the 47 arrests that night, Monroe said, only three were UK students. He added that no university property was damaged, and students’ reactions to the police presence were mainly positive.

“That’s our main focus,” Monroe said. “Nobody got hurt on our end.”