Atlanta-Area Sheriff Requests Additional $2 Million to Pay Overtime for Deputies

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat went before the county commissioners at a meeting this week and requested additional funding from the board in order to pay his employee’s overtime.

“When we start paying comp time, we’ve already lost over 60 people with respect to when we stopped paying double time,” Labat said.

Labat is asking for more than $2 million from county commissioners to cover overtime for October, November and December. Right now, the sheriff said he can only afford to give his team comp time because their overtime budget was cut, Atlanta News First reports.

“Literally they are asking us to fight this fight with our hands tied behind our back. We knew the OT costs were going to rise,” Labat said.

Labat blames the increase in overtime hours on long court cases, campaign visits, and local elections.