By: Rob Krieger & Dannah Sauer | fox8live.com | November 18, 2025
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) — The New Orleans Police Department has changed how officers clock in for overtime shifts following an investigation that found potential timesheet violations by high-earning officers.
The order says, beginning immediately, NOPD officers working scheduled overtime shifts must clock in using the biometric time clocks in their specific district or assignment location. The change comes after Fox 8’s investigation revealed discrepancies in overtime reporting by two of the department’s highest overtime earners.
Using undercover cameras, Fox 8 found two NOPD officers at home when their timesheets showed they were on the clock.
Senior Officer Brandon Coleman was paid $112,275.12 in overtime last year, enough to triple his base salary of nearly $65,000. With additional compensation, he took home $217,776.16 last year.
A review of Coleman’s timesheets found he logged more than 146 days working 16-plus hours in 2024. NOPD allows officers to work a maximum of 16 hours and 35 minutes per day. Coleman’s timesheets show he was only off the clock for 19 days last year.
From January to July this year, Coleman recorded 120 days of 16-hour shifts and only logged 11 days off the clock.
On July 22, when Coleman was clocked in for his 59th consecutive day beginning at 6:25 a.m., Fox 8’s undercover camera showed he didn’t leave his house until nearly four hours later.
Sgt. Henry Burke took home more in overtime than anyone else in the department last year. The NOPD paid him more than $245,000, almost three times his base salary of $83,024.34.
About half of Burke’s pay was overtime, including at least 199 days last year when he claimed to work 16 hours or longer. Cameras captured multiple instances when timesheets showed Burke was clocked in, but he was actually at home outside Orleans Parish, nearly 30 minutes from his district station.
Hours after Fox 8’s initial report, the NOPD launched an internal investigation into possible violations of departmental policy.
NOPD Supt. Anne Kirkpatrick on Monday (Nov. 17) issued a general order mandating all NOPD members clock in using a biometric time clock for all scheduled overtime shifts.
Unlike standard time clocks, biometric time clocks use physical traits such as fingerprints, facial recognition or eye scans to verify when employees clock in and out.
The order also requires officers to use the biometric time clock located in the district or division where the overtime is worked.
State Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack is overseeing an audit of New Orleans city finances, including tens of millions in NOPD overtime spending.
“I would say, based on some stuff that I saw for 2025 thus far, there seems to be some pattern of concern on my end,” Waguespack said.
Waguespack said NOPD officers can clock as much as 56 hours in overtime per week, which opens the door for potential abuse.
“They can work 56 hours in addition to the normal work week. That’s a lot of hours,” he said. “If somebody wants to manipulate the system, they can capture (16 hours and 35 minutes) a day, and they’ll end up with a $200,000-plus salary.”
Metropolitan Crime Commission president Rafael Goyeneche said the officers’ timesheets should have raised red flags.
“If you’ve documented some glaring potential abuses by a small number of officers, those abuses should have been identified, not at the end of the year, not a couple of months ago, but as those timesheets were submitted,” Goyeneche said. “They should have been reviewed more completely than apparently they were.”
Goyeneche said he believes overtime spending is a factor in recent crime reduction, making it important for the undermanned NOPD to eliminate potential abuse.
“The police department is going to rely heavily on overtime,” he said. “That makes it even more important for the police department to appropriately make sure that the overtime that is being billed to the taxpayers of the City of New Orleans is, in fact, being appropriately worked.”
Waguespack said his team’s audit could take several months, but he hopes to have preliminary data to release before then.
Burke and Coleman declined to comment when contacted by Fox 8. An NOPD spokesperson said Kirkpatrick will not be doing interviews on the topic at this time.