The magic number is 32 tickets in a four-hour overtime shift, Randolph contends. The overtime quotas happen the most at the end of the calendar year, in December, and at the end of the fiscal year, in May and June, he said.
And, in order to carry that off — it’s not easy finding so many violators — officers resort to writing up what he describes as borderline violations: a bumper barely hanging over a red curb, being legally close to a time expiration, parking in a forbidden zone that’s not at all clearly marked.
If officers working overtime don’t bring in the citations, they won’t immediately get more overtime, Randolph said. And overtime adds up. As City Controller’s data shows, there are traffic officers making six-figure salaries even though their base pay is nowhere near that.