The Idaho State Police ran up 4,592 hours of overtime for 16 new troopers during a training academy, the Idaho Statesman reports today, with most of the pricey OT attributed to freeway commutes. Statesman reporter Cynthia Sewell reports that the overtime bill for the training class comes to $134,164, triple the overtime bill for the last class a year earlier; the recruits in the training class each received the equivalent of a 21 percent bonus of their first-year pay in overtime from the training session alone.

ISP told the Statesman that there wasn’t enough room in the dorms at the POST Academy in Meridian, so the 16 recruits were housed in barracks at Gowen Field, and paid overtime for driving the 11 miles back and forth, which ISP estimated at 1.5 to 2 hours a day for 16 weeks. The recruits also were paid overtime for team-building activities conducted at Gowen Field in the evenings, outside their regular class time.

ISP spokeswoman Teresa Baker told the Statesman, “ISP training recognized the increase in overtime and is evaluating our return on the team-building exercises. We anticipate a reduction in the overtime hours approved for future academy team-building exercises after classroom hours are completed."

Sewell obtained the information about the overtime expenses through an Idaho Public Records Law request; her full report is online here.