Loophole allowed top NYPD officer to earn thousands from OT, despite department rules prohibiting it

A top NYPD officer quietly pocketed thousands of dollars in overtime pay last year — despite department rules barring managers from collecting such compensation, The Post has learned.

Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry — an NYPD liaison to City Hall — will make $60,000 more than the department’s top cop in 2023, thanks in part to a payroll loophole that allowed him to take advantage of time-and-a-half time off.

“Welcome to Mayor (Eric) Adams’s NYPD,” quipped one source, noting how Daughtry was apparently allowed to game the system.

“While the lower ranks’ overtime is scrutinized up to the minute, Kaz parades around and abuses the very system he claimed to fix.”

The NYPD’s administrative guidelines prohibit manager-level employees from being paid more than their 80-hour workweek.

But after being promoted from detective first class to the role of assistant commissioner last July, Daughtry continued to work in OT.

His payments for last year’s last full period show he logged nearly 80 extra hours between Dec. 9-22 — a little less than $15,000 in bonus cash.

He even kept bonus payments up to an extra $1,000 for working night shifts—an extra allowance that would normally have been a luxury for rank-and-file cops forced to pull one of the most undesirable shifts. Is reserved for.

“What did he make?” A former NYPD chief became angry while reviewing the paystub, which the Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act.

“Nobody should be working overtime as an executive,” the former chief said, echoing the sentiment of more than a half-dozen police sources who were horrified by the extra pay.

Uniformed policemen often point to the pistol-packing civilian officer as a symbol of a troubled culture in the NYPD under the Adams administration — where cowboy antics and crony connections held more weight than accomplishments.

“The fact that a man who has never supervised anyone in his entire career is now bringing in more money than the police commissioner is ridiculously ironic,” the first source said.

Overall, Daughtry earned $311,000 last year, while the NYPD commissioner made $251,000, records show.

More than $141,000 of this came from overtime, with an additional $5,600 coming from night shift pay. It’s unclear how much of this was filed between his July 17 promotion — to a civilian role that is not eligible for overtime — and the last pay period of the year.

Daughtry declined to comment when contacted by The Post.

An NYPD spokesperson confirmed that he was allowed to continue collecting his detective pay after the promotion, leaving overtime completely above board.

“This designation did not change his civil service title as a first class detective, and he continued to receive the pay and overtime rate of a first class detective,” the representative said in a statement.

It was not clear who approved the deal, but according to department administration guides and sources, top officials such as department head Jeffrey Maddrey or then-Police Commissioner Edward Caban would have had to sign off on it.

According to sources, the promotion also came with the added bonus of making Daughtry untouchable by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which was forced to drop three open cases against him. news of charges being dropped First reported by nonprofit newsroom City.

A protégé of Maddrey, Daughtry has followed the chief for most of his 18-year career. after adams Installed his old friend Madre at the top position At the NYPD, Daughtry, then a detective, was transferred to One Police Plaza. Sources previously told The Post that he was “virtually running” the department from NYPD headquarters and had crossed paths with then-Police Commissioner Keith Sewell to get around him at City Hall.

A few weeks after Sewell’s sudden resignation, Cabán, the newly appointed top cop Daughtry made assistant commissionerWhere he was assigned the job of Madre’s Chief of Staff and liaison to the Mayor’s office.

Since then, Daughtry has become one of the most visible top NYPD officers, along with Patrol Chief John Chell. He has also repeatedly received praise from the mayor for expanding the NYPD’s drone program.

For his part, Daughtry previously told The Post he likes policing the streets While working around the clock.

He was promoted again to deputy commissioner of operations in February, and has since been ineligible for overtime, the police department confirmed.