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Baltimore City police officers may make less than their counterparts in surrounding jurisdictions, but officers are making up the difference with overtime ? nearly $37 million last year.

Detective Albert Marcus, who investigates shootings, earned $104,000 in overtime in 2006, the most of the entire city work force, according to records provided by the Baltimore City Finance Department to The Examiner. His entire pay for the year was $167,421.92, which exceeded Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm?s salary of $153,000. And more than that of Mayor Sheila Dixon, who will earn $148,000 after a raisein 2008.

Click here to see the Excel file provided to The Examiner by the city.

The top-10 overtime earners netted more than $773,246 in overtime, which added about $75,000 apiece to their base salaries, according to payroll records. Marcus was one of 121 police officers whose total salary exceeded $100,000, records show.

The $37 million dollars spent on overtime in fiscal 2006 was more than doubled the $18 million spent in 2005.

"For the kind of money they spent on overtime, we could have gone for higher salaries," said Paul Blair, president of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3. "They were giving it out like candy ? paying for 12-hour shifts and for omnipresence. You can?t blame the rank and file for that."

Blair has advocated for new police recruits to earn starting salaries comparable to Baltimore County, which pays officers about $6,000 more annually in base pay.

A review of the records revealed the following:

» The top 100 overtime earners netted an extra $5.2 million dollars in overtime.

» About 40 of the top overtime earners worked the equivalent of an entire extra year.

» Officers worked 1.5 million overtime hours, or about 37,500 40-hour work weeks.

» Overtime pay added an extra 17 percent to the entire police payroll.

City Councilman Ken Harris, who has been an outspoken critic of overtime, called the figures shocking.

"We owe the citizens of Baltimore an explanation. Based on the crime statistics, I do not think the return matched the investment," he said

In January, The Examiner reported that police overtime spending exceeded the budget halfway through 2007. Police officials estimated that the department had spent$22 million dollars on overtime midway through the fiscal year, exceeding the $8 million budgeted.

In February, the department suspended six police officers for possible overtime fraud, pending an investigation by Internal Affairs. One of those officers, Sgt. Darryl Massey, earned more than $69,000 in overtime in 2006 and is among the top-10 overtime earners for the entire department.

In a story published earlier this year by The Examiner, Francis Hamilton, 44, a former Baltimore police officer, claimed she was fired in retaliation for reporting overtime abuse in the Accident Investigation Unit. The department disputed those allegations.

10 HIGHEST-PAID BALTIMORE OFFICERS

(BASE-OVERTIME-TOTAL*)

» ALBERT MARCUS SR. - $62,998 - $104,423.92 - $167,421.92

» JULIE PITOCCHELLI -$55,649 - $87,868.06 - $143,517.06

» VINCENT STEVENSON - $58,439 - $79,617.26 - $138,056.26

» LT. REGIS FLYNN JR. - $81,121 - $75,408.81 - $156,529.81

» DIANE SAVAGE - $58,951 - $72,254.86 - $131,205.86

» RAFIU MAKANJUOLA - $54,073 - $71,566.09 - $125,639.09

» SGT. JAE KIM - $68,380 - $71,193.01 - $139,573.01

» SGT. DOUGLAS GARDNER - $71,361 - $70,670.09 - $142,031.09

» IRVIN BRADLEY - $61,514 - $70,527.14 - $132,041.14

» SGT. DARRYL MASSEY - $71,361 - $69,716.86 - $141,077.86

Source: Baltimore City Finance Department

Read our editorial, 'Protect, serve, rake in dough'.

Stephen Janis

City spends millions on overtime