Should N.Y. Police Curb Overtime to Prevent Officer Burnout?

SYRACUSE, NY—Officer John Tassini had a very, very busy year in 2025.

Tassini, a patrolman, became Syracuse’s first-ever employee to make more than $300,000 by working jaw-dropping amounts of overtime.

He was on the clock for more than 4,700 hours last year. That’s about 13 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. He picked up loads of available overtime gigs at the JMA Wireless Dome or doing security for Centro’s bus hub when he would otherwise have been off-duty. He usually signed up first for extra patrol hours downtown.

The department puts no limits on how much any one officer can work.

Police leaders say overtime like Tassini’s is fueled by a dramatic drop in sworn officers over the last five years – they’re down more than 83 officers since 2021. More cops are retiring young, and it’s harder to recruit new officers.

Furthermore, the department relies on officers to volunteer for overtime shifts. Tassini, 43, is a “rare breed,” his union rep said. A workhorse. Without officers like him, the department would have to mandate more overtime on officers who don’t want to work it.

But experts say such a demanding schedule for any one cop can lead to burnout and bad decision-making from people who wield lethal authority. Like truck drivers or pilots, police officers shouldn’t be worked to the brink of exhaustion. One wrong decision could have extreme consequences.

The department is budgeted to spend $9.9 million on overtime this year – up from $7 million in 2021. Last year, 27 officers more than doubled their base pay with overtime. Tassini more than tripled his $91,600 base.

Police Chief Mark Rusin said department leaders keep an eye on officers who work a lot of overtime to look for burnout. He said Tassini is the kind of officer who can handle such an intense workload. He had no complaints lodged against him last year, despite so many hours on duty, Rusin said.

“He’s always been an incredibly hard worker,” Rusin said, noting that he and Tassini came through the same police academy class. “He’s willing to put in the time.”

Voluntary overtime

Rusin said the department aims to minimize mandatory overtime, which he said can “hit morale very, very hard.” That’s why they have not put caps on voluntary overtime.

The department has an electronic overtime management program called “Off Duty Blue” in which shifts are posted in advance and officers sign up.

That’s one of the main reasons Tassini has earned so much in recent years. He takes voluntary overtime at a time when fewer cops are interested.

That includes extra security details that are reimbursed by outside groups, such as Syracuse University for Dome events, and security patrols at Centro’s downtown bus hub and Parkside Commons. Rusin said $93,000 of Tassini’s 2025 overtime was paid back to the city by these groups.

Syracuse PBA President Joseph Moran agreed cops are not taking as many voluntary overtime opportunities as they used to.

“I wish we had 50 more John Tassinis,” he said. “Because if we did, it would help limit and reduce the mandated overtime that is being forced upon our members because of our staffing.”

In addition to working extra details, Tassini spends the bulk of his on-duty time on patrol shifts, often in the downtown area, responding to calls and keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. In 2021, he received a departmental commendation for responding with fellow Officer Darrin Ettinger to an active shooting scene at a convenience store on South Avenue and apprehending an armed suspect.

Tassini, who owns a home in the town of Pompey, declined to comment for this story but referred questions to Moran.

‘Their clearest mind possible’

Studies on police scheduling and workload have landed on a sweet spot for the optimal shift length: 10 hours.

That’s the base workweek SPD has had in place for several years after the Syracuse Police Benevolent Association advocated for that schedule. Officers work four days on, three days off, four days on, four days off. The change from 8-hour days gave officers more days off while maintaining the same number of hours.

The nonprofit National Policing Institute explained the standard in January:

“Unlike airline pilots or truck drivers, police typically have no strict work-hour regulations, and many officers patch together long shifts, court appearances, and even secondary jobs,” the institute said. “The result is a workforce that too often runs on coffee and determination while battling chronic fatigue.”

What happens too often is cops are held beyond those 10-hour shifts. Once those days stretch into 12 hours or more, the potential for bad outcomes escalates, said Jon Shane, a retired Newark, New Jersey police captain who is now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

“The biggest concern is the fact that police officers have the government-sanctioned right to use force, and when they do that, they have to have their clearest mind possible,” Shane said.

Another concern from extra-long shifts is that cops often have to come back to work the next day without enough of a break.

Rusin said he and the command staff pay close attention to signs of officer fatigue. It’s part of the leadership training he does with sergeants.

“You have to be monitoring your folks,” the chief said. “You can’t be over monitoring. You can’t be under monitoring. There’s that balance that you have to talk about. And it’s a skill that you learn over time.”

SPD also has an active peer-to-peer support program in which specially trained officers provide confidential mental health and emotional support services.

Boosting the ranks

In addition to his academic work, John Jay College’s Shane does workload analysis for police departments around the country. He said the national standard is to do such a review every three years, although he encourages police chiefs to do them annually.

SPD last did a review in 2023-24 at the direction of Syracuse Common Council, which wanted better insight into what was driving overtime increases. A San Francisco-based police staffing consultant issued a $145,000 report with 87 specific recommendations on staffing. City Auditor Alexander Marion worked with now-retired SPD Chief Joe Cecile to issue a public report on the findings in September 2024.

A common theme was recommendations to move sworn officers away from work that could be done by civilian staff and into direct law enforcement duties. That included cops who were charged with overseeing finances, crossing guards, parking and city ordinance enforcement and business license checking.

Marion said he’s had conversations with both Cecile and Rusin about pursuing some of the recommendations. Those transitions, though, can take time because they involve labor contract issues and ensuring other departments can take on work.

“We should be mindful of what do cops do that only cops can do versus what can we have a civilian employee do,” Marion said. “I think that there is certainly a lot of room to grow on the civilianization front.”

Rusin’s focus is to reverse the trend of yearly retirements and resignations outpacing the number of new officers hired. It’s why he convinced Mayor Sharon Owens to suspend a residency requirement for newly hired officers, and it’s why he’s urging more advocacy for state legislation that could help retain cops who become retirement-eligible.

“You look at staffing as a house: The front door is recruiting and the back door is retention,” he said. “We have to close the back door to keep people.”

Police officers in New York state can retire after 20 years on the job and collect full pensions. Many choose that instead of working a few more years.

Rusin and PBA President Moran have pushed for state legislation to establish a “deferred retirement option plan,” or DROP.

When an officer opts into a DROP system, their pension payout is locked in and paid into an escrow account while they continue to work and earn their regular pay and benefits. When they do finally retire, they get a lump sum payout from their DROP account to go along with the annual pension benefit.

“I’m confident that program would absolutely keep people for an additional three to five years, I have no doubt,” Moran said.

Pension spiking

Police officers can beef up overtime pay as they near retirement eligibility in order to maximize their pension benefit — and many of them do, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy.

For cops hired before 2009, pension benefits are calculated without any caps on how much overtime compensation is included. As a result, officers have an incentive to work as much overtime as they can in their final three years on the job. Pension payments are based on the average of an officer’s three highest earning years.

The Empire Center analyzed New York State Police payroll and pension data for 2024 and found that those officers increased their overtime by 78% in their final three years. That resulted in an average pension boost of $20,000.

After 2009, the state Legislature capped overtime earnings to 15% of the total pay used to calculate the pension payout. There’s been pension change discussions in Albany this session to potentially lift that cap, which the Empire Center warns against. The organization said the practice, while perfectly legal, is expensive for taxpayers.

Tassini’s total compensation has grown considerably over the past three years.

In 2021, he earned $161,140. He was paid $235,087 in 2023. A year later, that jumped to $282,758, which made him the city’s highest paid employee.

Tassini hasn’t put in for retirement despite becoming eligible earlier this month.

“To be honest, I’m thankful,” Rusin said. “I’m trying my hardest to retain people, and he’s a hard-working guy.”

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