A few weeks ago, I filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for sick day numbers at Transit Police. The FOI is posted here.

Essentially, sick days are increasing at Transit Police.

In 2010, the 66 civilian employees took an average of 5.44 sick days each. In 2011, that jumped to 6.73. Extrapolating the first seven months of 2012 to a full year shows civilian employees are on pace for 7.8 sick days each this year.

The sworn officers are a bit more of a yo-yo. In 2010, they averaged 5.96 days each. In 2011, they averaged 6.8 sick days. This year, they are down a little—extrapolated across a whole year, sworn officers are on pace for 6.48 sick days each.

Remember, Transit Police officers already get paid for 11.59 shifts a year they don’t work, due to a quirk in their reduced work week bank. In fact, the average Transit Police officers gets $6,900 extra in overtime, $2,000 extra in Sunday premiums and $5,000 for the reduced work week. That’s $13,900 each.

One other small note: Transit Police claim this FOI cost $352 to prepare. Don’t they have an HR department tracking sick day statistics? Isn’t this pretty basic workforce management?