Payroll error causes delay in BPD retiree’s accrued $40K payout: ‘Those days just disappeared’

A 2019 payroll error within the Baltimore Police Department led to a retired police officer waiting four years before receiving his vacation accrual payout that totaled more than $40,000, says a report from the City’s Inspector General released Thursday.

The police officer, who the report did not publicly identify, worked for the department for 32 years and retired in 2019, the report states.  In the last few months of his tenure with the BPD, he transferred divisions, during which his accrued vacation leave of more than 110 days did not transfer over in the payroll system, Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming said in an interview Friday with The Baltimore Sun.

The more than 110 days totaled a payout of $40,822.34 before taxes.

“When he switched departments, it suddenly [went] to zero,” she said. “And mind you, it’s not like he switched departments and took a long vacation. [He was] being paid for working every day. […] Those days just disappeared.”

After several years of trying to resolve the issue through the BPD human resources office and his police union representative, the man turned to Cumming’s office at the end of October 2023 for help.

“However, between November 2019 and October 2023, the Officer never received their due compensation from the City,” the report states.

The Baltimore Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Cumming said the man reached out to her office via their hotline. The OIG then directed the BPD and City Department of Finance to investigate.

“The BPD informed the OIG that after reviewing their respective records, it was learned that upon the officer’s retirement date in November 2019, the BPD did not initiate a leave payout request for the officer’s vacation leave balance,” the report reads. “The [finance department] corroborated this information during the review of its records, which showed that no payout request was received from the BPD for the officer’s accrued leave balance.”

A memo released by the city’s Department of Finance says that the BPD found no record of a payout to the officer.

Additionally, the memo cites a potential software flaw as the cause of the incident, stating, “In the legacy system, it is possible that the legacy balance inaccurately zeroed out and it was concluded that it was not likely that the entire balance of [111.8 days] would have been used in one pay period.”

The city’s payroll division has implemented several changes in the leave payout process since 2019 and regularly meets with BPD to track outstanding items.

A check was issued to the officer on Dec. 15.

Cumming said in a text message to The Sun that she commends the finance department for looking into the issue and giving the officer “a much better holiday.”

“The officer was overjoyed to learn that what the others could not do in four years, the OIG facilitated within four weeks to bring a resolution to the officer’s matter,” the report reads.