In 2025, Columbus’ police and fire divisions spent $51 million on overtime.
This year, the divisions must cut that to $28 million.
The Columbus City Council’s public safety committee chair called that “a difficult target to hit.” Police and fire unions say the city is currently using overtime to make up for staffing shortfalls.
In 2025, the Columbus police and fire divisions each reduced their overtime budgets by 20%, Columbus Director of Public Safety Kate Pishotti said in a prepared statement provided in response to questions from The Dispatch. The 2026 budget has “more aggressive” targets, with overtime cut by 40% for police and 30% for the fire division, Pishotti said.
Asked whether the reduced OT goals are feasible, Pishotti wrote that “both divisions have controls in place and will continue to evaluate operations to identify additional efficiencies and manage costs.”
Columbus City Councilmember Emmanuel Remy, chair of the public safety and criminal justice committee, said it’s unlikely the divisions will meet the overtime goals.
“They’re steep assumptions,” Remy said of the budget cuts. “I’m going to say at this point, based on what we’re seeing right now, they’re not going to be able to hit that target.”
The 2026 budget is a higher dollar figure than the 2025 budget, but Mayor Andrew Ginther said he could not fund all his priorities due to inflation and growing labor costs, including the rising cost of Columbus employees’ health insurance.
Columbus City Council added back some money to Ginther’s initially proposed cuts to courts, homeless shelters, health care for uninsured patients and other city council priorities, but money for police and fire overtime remained on the chopping block along with some police recruitment funding.
City Council President Shannon Hardin said it was the tightest city budget he’d seen in more than 10 years at City Hall. Councilmember Melissa Green said at a Feb. 25 budget meeting that the 2026 budget included a “lot of hoping, wishing and praying.”
Ginther’s proposed 2026 budget had a $1.26 billion general fund, up from $1.23 billion in 2025. The proposed budget allocated $852 million for public safety, up from about $775 million in 2025.
Columbus police make adjustments to hit targets
So far, Pishotti said the police division has accomplished its drop in overtime by requiring an assistant chief to sign off on “second day off” overtime and by closely reviewing projects and training that require overtime.
The division has been working to reduce second day off overtime since 2024. Police officers typically have two days off each week; if they work through the first day off, they’re paid one and a half times their hourly rate. If they work both days, they are paid double their hourly rate for the second day.
The division took aim at second day overtime in a Nov. 12, 2024, email. Assistant Chief Greg Bodker told staff then that all second day off overtime would have to be approved by an assistant chief going forward.
Pishotti said the fire division reduced its overtime by increasing staffing, revising recruit and apprenticeship training programs and “realigning some positions to improve efficiency.”
“Every time they report in to us they’re really doing a better job,” Remy said. “We’re very proud of the work they’re doing to help decrease the level of overtime without sacrificing the level of safety for the community, for our residents.”
But a certain amount of overtime will always be necessary for first responders, Remy said. If the divisions exceed their overtime budgets, City Council will have to move money around in the general fund, Remy said.
“At that point, we will have to reallocate money from other places,” Remy said. “The council will absolutely not sacrifice public safety.”
Remy said he did not know where that money might be pulled from.
Staffing issues make OT necessary, some say
Steven Stein, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 67, which represents Columbus firefighters, said the new overtime targets are “just incongruent with the reality we’re facing.” He said the fire division is currently using overtime to fill key seats in fire trucks and keep stations open 24/7.
Stein said fire personnel such as the battalion chiefs, deputy chiefs and the emergency services chief already strictly monitor overtime. The division was budgeted for 1,765 uniformed personnel in 2025, but ended the year with 1,716 members, Battalion Chief Jeffrey Geitter said. In 2023, the division had 1,655 uniformed firefighters, according to the city budget.
“They monitor this overtime with a microscope,” Stein said. “We’re not just staffing extra people just to staff them. … We need them in to respond to 911 calls.”
Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said the police division is also short-staffed and using overtime to compensate.
In November 2025, the Columbus Department of Public Safety said the city had 1,891 officers. The 2025 budget called for 2,037 sworn officers. In 2023, the division had 1,851 officers, and the budget called for 1,937.
“We are still short-staffed,” Steel said. “How you fulfill that short-staffed gap is you staff cars with overtime.”
Steel said the current overtime cuts aren’t steep enough to threaten public safety. But they do impact the public in terms of “the quality-of-life stuff,” like how long it takes officers to respond to calls in which there isn’t a crime in progress or an imminent threat to someone’s safety.
“The response time for nonemergency runs just stretches longer and longer,” Steel said. “Often the officer, who is usually the first person of any government someone sees, usually catches the brunt of it.”
Steel said officers always did a good job of dropping everything to respond to crimes in progress, even during the more severe staffing shortages that happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he said he has concerns that budgeting less overtime could hamper crime prevention efforts, allowing crime rates to creep back up.
“My stance is simply, when it comes to public safety, you have to invest,” Steel said. “The time to slow down investing is not when crime is down. … We have to keep staffing officers and preventing crime so we don’t see another spike.”
Recruiting also cut in budget
Despite the staffing shortfalls, the 2026 budget also calls for fewer police recruit classes. The division held three recruit classes in 2025, but will have just two in 2025. Pishotti implied this could change.
“The administration will review staffing needs and available funding during the year and make adjustments as necessary to support operations and manage overtime,” Pishotti said.
The 2026 budget also eliminates the cadet program. The three-year program for young adults interested in a law enforcement career served as a pipeline for some recruits.
Ginther previously said adding back a third recruit class might be an option if more revenue becomes available.
This story was updated with additional information.
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police, fire face sharp overtime cuts. Will they meet targets?
Reporting by Bailey Gallion, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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