In my job at a public water and sewer utility, we are required to utilize local police for traffic control on construction projects (so-called “private-duty police”). We get off-duty police who are working overtime. But they don’t actually care a whit about traffic control or public safety. They simply want to get paid $200/hour to sit (and sleep) in their air-conditioned police vehicles with the lights going. And because they refuse to get out of their cars and actually direct traffic, we also have to hire flaggers (i.e. civilian flagmen).
If a contractor cancels due to rain, we still have to pay them for a full 8-hour shift. If a contractor goes just one minute past 8 hours, we get charged for another 4 hours at overtime rates (time-and-a-half).
It’s a complete scam, and everyone knows it. But nobody can do anything about it, because the police union is all-powerful. We’ve complained to the mayor and the police chief, and nothing changes. Why? Because they’re the biggest gang in town, and nobody will take them on.
I recently spent over a million dollars on private-duty police on a recent $12 million water main project. That was nearly 10% of my construction budget. We had to go back to our board for additional funds due to the egregious overcharges.