The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office will soon begin a new pilot program to try to curb overtime expenses.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to fund a program that would allow the sheriff's office to "overhire" six patrol deputies and six custody deputies.
Sheriff Ian Parkinson says because the hiring process takes so long with things like background checks and psychological exams, people are often called in to work overtime shifts to fill vacant spots.
"So our idea is that if we can speed up the hiring process and anticipate we're going to have these vacancies and being able to overhire and have them at various stages in hiring, academy, field training process, we're going to reduce that overtime number or the demand for it and that's both in custody and patrol," Parkinson said.
Sheriff Parkinson says the sheriff's office currently spends between $3 million and $5 million a year on overtime.
He says it will take 12-18 months to analyze the program and see how it's working before they know if they should continue to overhire.
