Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's ongoing border effort leads to eye-popping amounts of overtime pay for some DPS troopers, a Dallas Morning News review of data finds.
The Department of Public Safety has spent at least $68 million on overtime for the border mission since its start in March 2021.
It’s not clear how many extra hours officers are putting in on the border, where Abbott has directed them to jail and arrest migrants on state trespassing charges. The department did not provide information about the average number of overtime hours troopers are working. The added pay, sprinkled up and down the ranks, is helping some officers double their regular salaries, according to pay records provided by the state comptroller’s office.
“It’s very challenging to keep morale up because people are tired,” Jankovsky said. “They’re tired of living out of a suitcase. They’re tired of not being home.”DPS troopers and sergeants are, on average, making several thousand more in overtime pay than the department’s own. Since March 2021, troopers averaged about $41,000 in extra pay, state records show, while sergeants made $43,500.
Two other lieutenants, praised by the agency last fall for working “countless” hours since the border operation’s start, are now among the department’s top paid. Stationed near Del Rio whereBefore the operation began, most DPS officers were working 10-hour shifts five days a week. Now, most are pulling seven-day shifts of 12 hours each, said Jaclyn Gooding, a trooper stationed in Del Rio.
“The department is proud to be able to compensate these individuals – and all the administrative staff who support them – appropriately for the demanding, dangerous work they do on a daily basis,” spokeswoman Ericka Miller said in a statement.
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