THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503040467
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
In the latest sign of unrest in the Norfolk Police Department, 40 detectives have sued the city for three years of back overtime pay.
It is the third overtime lawsuit by Norfolk police officers since August. It brings the total number of Norfolk police suing the city for overtime pay to more than 100. There are about 680 officers in Norfolk.
The newest lawsuit was filed Thursday in Norfolk's federal court. Like the previous lawsuits, it claims Norfolk violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying detectives time-and-a-half when they worked more than 40 hours a week.
The lawsuit does not specify how much money the detectives claim they are owed.
``Investigators, by their very nature, are not 9-to-5 people,'' said the detectives' attorney, Andrew M. Sacks. ``These people are constantly being called upon outside the work hours to perform police services.''
On Friday, City Attorney Philip Trapani said detectives already get compensatory time for working more than 40 hours a week.
Sacks, however, said detectives work many hours for which they do not get credit - for example, time spent on-call and, according to the lawsuit, ``time spent caring for assigned police equipment and developing and maintaining skills'' necessary for the job.
The latest lawsuit is one of a series by local police officers seeking overtime pay:
In Portsmouth, nearly the entire police force - about 200 of the city's 220 officers - sued last year for overtime pay. A trial is scheduled for April.
In Newport News, officers sued in the late 1980s and again in the early 1990s. The cases never went to trial. Instead, the city settled its differences with the police.
In Norfolk, 24 K-9 officers sued in August for overtime pay for time spent training, transporting and caring for their animal partners. A trial is scheduled for June.
Again in Norfolk, 37 sergeants, lieutenants and captains sued in January for overtime pay. The city claims these supervisors are exempt from overtime. The officers say they are not. So far, there is no trial date.
In the newest lawsuit by Norfolk police, there is no dispute over whether the detectives are eligible for overtime. Instead, the dispute, as in the K-9 case, is over which hours are considered working time.
The lawsuit comes at a politically sensitive time.
Last month, two Norfolk police groups released a survey showing widespread dissatisfaction with Chief Melvin High among 410 officers polled. The officers said High is out of touch with the rank-and-file and is not doing a good job of leading the department.
High said he was surprised and disappointed by the results, but would try to improve relations with ordinary police officers. ILLUSTRATION: Illustration
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT POLICE by CNB