Employment Overtime Law: Overtime Reductions Causes Delays in Narcotics Evidence Analysis

Los Angeles - Overtime reductions, which resulted from budget cuts, have delayed the analysis of narcotics evidence gathered by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

According to reports, Sheriff Lee Baca informed the LA County Board of Supervisors about the problems that were caused by the budget cuts’ operational impacts, especially within investigative and critical support units.

Baca stated that heavy load of narcotics cases were handled by trained analysts by working overtime.

Reports said after the cuts, the number of unanalyzed cases significantly increased from 256 to 920. Even other law agencies in LA County, which are outsourcing narcotics analysis to the department, said they were affected by this delay.

The sheriff reduced the department’s overtime expenses in the aim of compensating for a $128 million budget cut.