#NYPD shifts overtime funds to increase presence ahead of holiday weekend

The NYPD has shifted around some funds to give street cops more overtime through Labor Day — a typically violent weekend when cops will be out in force along parade routes despite no marches this year thanks to COVID-19, police officials said.

“We’re re-juggling resources to free up some money to keep some cops on the street,” the official said, adding that the caps set in July had not been lifted for the entire department.

Police overtime was reduced as part of the City Council budget in July in response to the financial burden from the coronavirus and the Defund the Police movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

While overtime was never frozen, units across the department had various caps depending on how police brass prioritized the limited funding.

Most detective units were capped at 20 hours per month, per officer and, in some cases, had it increased to 30 during an investigation, according to sources.

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea beefed up the weekend patrols last week, changing the schedules of hundreds of uniformed officers under the rank of sergeant to work either Sunday through Thursday or Tuesday through Saturday.

That move, according to sources, freed up some payroll funds by not having to call in extra cops on weekends and pay a full day of overtime for officers who had a Monday through Friday schedule.

The scheduling is intended to combat shooting violence, according to memos obtained by The Post.

The latest move to put “several hundred cops back out on street” will continue through Labor Day — a weekend that usually sees the West Indian Day Parade and its pre-dawn partner J’Ouvert in Brooklyn, the official said.

Both events have been officially canceled this year due to COVID-19 and restrictions on large gatherings.

Despite the cancellation, the department plans to use light towers and maintain a heavy presence along the route, sources said.

The NYPD is struggling to curb the spike in shootings in New York.

On Monday, Gotham recorded its 13th-consecutive week of surging gun violence with nearly 375 more shootings and 499 more victims over that time compared to last year.

Sunday marked another grim milestone with more than 1,000 shootings reported with four months left in the year. The last time NYC recorded more than 1,000 incidents of gunplay was 2015.

Over the last two weeks, gun arrests have outpaced last year’s tallies for the first time in months, bringing the total of collars for firearms just above last 2019’s numbers, up to 338 from 334.