Over the span of less than a month, the city of San Luis Obispo spent over a quarter million dollars to police recent demonstrations in response to the death of George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson asked county officials this summer for an additional $3.55 million dollars in general fund money to cover unbudgeted overtime pay. Last year, several sheriff's department employees nearly doubled their salaries through working overtime hours. This month, Parkinson announced a plan to hire more deputies in an effort to rein in those overtime costs.