Loophole allowed top NYPD official to reap tens of thousands in OT despite department rules barring it

A top NYPD official quietly pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in overtime pay last year — despite department rules barring managers from collecting such compensation, The Post has learned.

Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry — an NYPD liaison to City Hall — made $60,000 more than the department’s top cop in 2023, thanks in part to a payroll loophole that allowed him to reap time and a half.

“Welcome to Mayor [Eric] Adams’ NYPD,” one source quipped of how Daughtry was apparently allowed to game the system.

“While the lower ranks have their overtime scrutinized down to the minute, Kaz parades around and abuses the very system he claimed to be fixing.”

The NYPD’s Administrative Guide bars manager-level employees from being paid beyond their 80-hour workweek.

But after being promoted from first-rank detective to an assistant commissioner role last July, Daughtry continued to put in for OT.

His paystub for the final full period of last year shows he logged nearly 80 extra hours between Dec. 9 and 22 — racking up just under $15,000 in bonus cash.

He even put in for bonus pay for working the night shift — an added perk usually reserved for rank-and-file cops forced to pull one of the most undesirable shifts — for an added $1,000.

“He made what?!” fumed one former NYPD chief while reviewing the paystub, which The Post obtained via the Freedom of Information Law.

“No one should be making overtime as an executive,” the former chief said, echoing the sentiment of more than a half-dozen police sources who were appalled by the extra pay.

Uniformed cops often point to the pistol-packing civilian official as epitomizing a troubled culture at the NYPD under the Adams administration — where cowboy antics and crony connections seem to carry more weight than accomplishments.

“The fact that a man who never supervised anyone in his entire career is now bringing in more money than the police commissioner is laughable irony,” the first source railed.

In total, Daughtry pulled in $311,000 last year, compared to the NYPD commissioner’s $243,000, the records show.

More than $141,000 of that came from overtime, with another $5,600 from added night-shift pay. It’s unclear how much of that was filed between his July 17 promotion — to a civilian role not eligible for overtime — and the last pay period of the year.

Daughtry declined to comment when reached by The Post. 

An NYPD spokesperson confirmed that he had been allowed to continue to collect his detective salary after the promotion, making the overtime completely aboveboard.

“This designation did not change his civil service title as a first-grade detective, and he continued to receive the salary and overtime rate of a first-grade detective,” the rep said in a statement.

It was unclear who approved the deal, but according to the department’s administration guide and to sources, top officials, such as Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey or then-Police Commissioner Edward Caban, would have had to sign off on it.

The promotion also came with the added bonus of making Daughtry untouchable by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which was forced to drop the three open cases against him, according to sources. News of the dropped charges was first reported by the nonprofit newsroom The City.

A protégée of Maddrey, much of Daughtry’s 18-year career has followed the chief. After Adams installed his longtime friend Maddrey in a top spot in the NYPD, Daughtry, then a detective, was moved into One Police Plaza. Sources previously told The Post that he was “literally running” the department from NYPD HQ and crossed then-Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell by going around her to City Hall.

Weeks after Sewell abruptly resigned, newly minted top cop Caban made Daughtry an assistant commissioner, in which he was tasked with being chief of staff to Maddrey and a liaison to the mayor’s office.

Since then, Daughtry has become one of the most visible top NYPD officials, along with Chief of Patrol John Chell. He has also repeatedly gotten praise from the mayor for expanding the NYPD’s drone program.

For his part, Daughtry previously told The Post that he likes to be out on the streets policing while working nearly around the clock.

He was promoted again in February to deputy commissioner of operations, and has since been ineligible for overtime, the police department confirmed.