The Denver Police Department is short $11 million and is asking the city to pick up the tab for unplanned and unfunded overtime tied to numerous protests and officer-involved shootings this year.

Part of the request would also cover shortfalls in DPD separation payouts.

The money, if approved by the City Council, would come from a supplemental general fund appropriation from the city’s contingency fund.

Members of the council’s Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee voted unanimously on Tuesday to advance the request, and others to claw back $13.9 million from the current general fund contingency, authorizing it as a supplemental appropriation for various general fund agencies and special revenue funds.

“This is something that, around this time of year, we typically do to ensure that agencies are able to stay within budget,” Justin Sykes, director of the city’s budget office, said.  

City officials point to DPD’s increased workload surrounding events and public protests, such as this year’s “No Kings” events, as contributing to a marked increase in police overtime.

Denver Chief of Police Ron Thomas stated that, as of Oct. 31, the city has had 38 major demonstrations, including the No Kings rallies.

“I think there were actually two or three of those that had thousands of folks that we had to manage,” Thomas said. “And also, to date, we’ve had 11 officer-involved shooting incidents, which is another driver of calling people in or holding people over to manage those scenes and to manage those investigations.”

For 2025, DPD expects needing approximately $15 million in overtime pay and $5.3 million in separation payouts, the two primary areas where the department exceeded its available funding, according to city officials.

“Our supplemental request is $11 million, which is approximately 4% of our appropriated budget,” Chanee Cummings, chief financial officer for the Denver Department of Public Safety, said. “We did, unfortunately, go over budget.”

Of the expected $15 million in overtime, $7 million would be covered by DPD’s own budget, leaving an $8 million ask out of the city’s contingency fund.

As for the $5.3 million in anticipated separation payouts, DPD will cover $1.8 million, proposing that the remaining $3.5 million also come from contingency dollars.

The financial challenge for DPD stems from the fact that, historically, the department has covered overtime expenses by drawing on vacancy savings within its staff.

However, vacancy savings were removed from every agency budget to remedy the city’s $50 million shortfall this year.

“We are in a really tough budget spot and simply did not have the capacity based on revenue to refill the vacancy savings that were removed from the police department budget for 2025,” Sykes told the committee, adding that vacancy savings are out of the 2026 budget as well.

Other appropriation requests include a $1.2 million transfer from the general fund contingency to the Liability Claims Fund, which, according to Sykes, has a balance of approximately $56,000.

There will be a $2 million transfer in 2026, but Sykes argued that “given where the city attorney’s office is at with various settlements and payouts, we want to be able to enable them to move forward with some of those items this year.”

Just over a month ago, the Denver City Council approved $1.5 million to settle two claims filed by six people who sued the city alleging police misconduct during the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Also on the list of contingency funding requests are unemployment insurance claims, funding for the city’s public defender and district attorney, and $35,000 for City Council separation payouts.

The City Charter requires that the proposed general fund budget set aside at least 2% for unbudgeted expenditures and costs.

“For the 2025 budget, there’s $34.55 million in general fund contingency, and we have not tapped into general fund contingency at all yet this year,” Sykes said. “If the supplemental appropriation request were to be approved, we would use about $13.9 million of that $34.55 million, which would leave about $20.6 million.”

The measure moves forward with a first reading before the City Council scheduled on Dec. 1.