LA County sheriff's deputies on pace to take home more than $500 million in overtime pay this year

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- In the first three months of the year, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spent more than $131 million on deputy overtime.

For all of last year, roughly $420 million was spent on deputy OT. We're on track for a record year of overtime, with this year's figure on pace to surpass $500 million.

Some deputies who are banking in say they'd rather get a break.

Anthony Meraz, a veteran sheriff's deputy, says he's exhausted. Meraz says he and his closest colleagues are pulling between 80 to 100 hours of overtime every month.

Meraz says it's not sustainable in such a stressful, high-stakes job where you're armed and making life or death split-second decisions.

"Tired employees don't make the best decisions all the time," Meraz said.

But there are more tired deputies because there are fewer total deputies.

As of last month, 1,530 deputy positions remain unfilled as a career in law enforcement isn't appealing to many.

"I have to make it work with the people I have," L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna told Eyewitness News. "And I want to thank the deputies who are working their tails off right now to meet those obligations."

But with those obligations harder to meet, cities that have contracts with the Sheriff's Department are sending letters to the Board of Supervisors voicing their concerns.

"I have seen firsthand the physical and mental fatigue our deputy sheriffs are experiencing due to excessive overtime..." Rosemead Mayor Margaret Clark said in a letter.

Richard Pippin, who is president of the union representing deputies, says you can't expect peak performance from deputies after putting in all this overtime.

"It is almost like Los Angeles County is running an experiment to see how far they can push their first responders without catastrophic consequences," Pippin said.

Deputies got a raise last year, but Pippin says negations underway with the county to boost deputy pay again are going nowhere.

The L.A. fires in January burned up billions of county money, but the county has been losing more deputies than it hires.

A first-year deputy trainee can start at $79,494 a year.

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement that the "issue is not about funding."

She says supervisors have approved money to train new deputies but, "...the Sheriff's Department has struggled to fill academy classes."