City approves police overtime grants

The city of Merced, California, recently approved two grants to compensate police officers for overtime employee attendance spent cracking down on local residents who drive under the influence, according to the Merced Sun-Star.

Drunk driving has been a problem in the area this year, with 76 car crashes involving alcohol occurring since January - two of which led to loss of life. The grants of $113,000 and $87,076 were awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety and will fund operations such as checkpoints, patrols, court stings and stakeouts.

"It's extra money, because (officers) can only do DUI enforcement with this grant while on overtime," explained Lance Eber, crime analyst for the Merced Police Department, as quoted by the news source. "What it should mean is fewer drunk drivers on the street."

Earlier this year, several members of the El Paso, Texas, Police Department were found to have committed time and attendance fraud involving two similar grants from the state's Department of Transportation, the El Paso Times reports. The officers altered the hours on tickets they issued to qualify for overtime under the grants.