"Reduced overtime stymies Border Patrol."

Here is an excerpt from Jerry Seper's article in the Washington Times:

"The U.S. Border Patrol has quietly reduced its current force of available agents along the U.S.-Mexico border by cutting the overtime hours they can work even as the Obama administration is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to hire 1,000 new agents, and Congress and the public are clamoring for beefed-up border security. Several rank-and-file and senior agents told The Washington Times that a new overtime directive issued at the agency's Washington headquarters will limit their ability to get their jobs done, reduce coverage during peak smuggling periods and allow more criminals to avoid apprehension.Because of the nature of the job, most Border Patrol agents average at least two hours overtime a day and the agency, as part of its ongoing recruitment effort, has promised what it called an "excellent opportunity for overtime pay."The decision to limit overtime hours is outlined in an April 29 memo from acting Border Patrol Chief Ronald D. Vitiello to all chief patrol agents and division chiefs. It mandates that they "effectively monitor and manage their employees' overtime levels" by cutting an existing overtime-salary cap." Link to Full Article

Analysis: When I read this article, I immediately contacted one of my sources within USBP to ask him if he thought the overtime cuts were going to have as drastic an impact as this article makes it sound. His answer in a nutshell was no. The USBP is like any other law enforcement agency when it comes to overtime; agents love it because it pays at least time and a half, and certain unions (which the article's author never mentions, by the way) are huge proponents of.

Several years ago, my father worked part-time as an inspector for US Customs at Miami International Airport. He loved the job itself, but he also loved the opportunity to work overtime because it paid so well. Just like USBP today, the nature of the job did provide several opportunities for overtime pay, and often those opportunities were abused by people who worked extra hours when their presence on the job wasn't truly needed. Soon enough, part-timers were no longer allowed to earn overtime pay, and then all part-time inspectors were let go because the unions were upset that they were taking a chunk of their overtime pay.

Another great point my USBP source makes is that many agents aren't exactly performing their best when they've been on the job for 20 hours straight. It's one thing if agents are actively working an operation, or are just out in the field and can't drop what they're doing to clock out at exactly eight or ten hours on the job that day. But working extra hours solely for the extra money can have detrimental effects on both the USBP mission and the US taxpayers who fund it. So while at first it sounds odd to hear that overtime is being cut at the same time that hundreds of new agents are being hired, just remember that USBP has a budget too, and fresh and awake agents are more effective than overtired ones.

Comments

[Fred Hiker]

I don’t as a rule read anything Jerry Seper/ Sarah Carter and the Washington times produce, but when I read in your analysis your comment about the union not being mentioned in Seper’s article, I had to read it. I couldn’t imagine Seper putting out such an article without the NBPC being involved. As I suspected TJ Bonner / NBPC were well quoted in the article.
You made an excellent point about overtime pay, and how it is so easily abused by many among the ranks of some government employees, but what you failed to mention as too did Seper, are the untold thousands of federal government employees which do not receive overtime pay. To be quite honest I’m about fed up with the Border Patrol, the Ted Poe’s, the Sarah Caters and the Jerry Sepers, and their always turning every event that takes place along this border into some crises, which only more Border Patrol, more troops, more fences and of course more money will cure. I read an article the other day, (I think it came from Fox News) having to do with the ‘’crises’’ in the AZ desert. Quoted in the article were two or three unnamed Border Patrol agents huffing and puffing about how seemingly every hilltop in the desert has a ‘’drug smuggler scout’’ a top it. What???? No where in the article however was mention made of the Border Patrol’s Special Response Teams (SRT, BORSTAR, BORTAC) and WHY APPRENTLY one or more of these teams weren’t already on the ground addressing this ‘’drug scout’’ atop each and every hill issue??? I think there is much more to be concerned with here for everyone involved, besides a reduction of overtime pay that needs to make the press.