By Suzanne Smalley and Matt Carroll, Globe Staff
Nearly 6 in 10 State Police officers who work full time at Logan International Airport or on the Massachusetts Turnpike made more last year than either the governor, the state attorney general, or the Suffolk district attorney.
Like all troopers, those assigned to patrol Logan and the turnpike profited by lucrative construction details, overtime shifts, and educational bonuses. But unlike all other troopers, those at Logan and the turnpike received daily reimbursements for driving their own cars to work. And they benefited last year from extra work directing traffic around detours caused by the fatal Big Dig tunnel collapse and providing security at the airport during an elevated terrorism alert.
Of the 320 troopers permanently assigned to Logan and the turnpike, at least 185 -- or 58 percent -- made more last year than the $140,535 governor's salary and at least 37 topped $200,000 in earnings, according to a Globe analysis of payroll information obtained under the state public records law.
Of the state's 2,338 other troopers, 225, or about 10 percent of the total force, made more than the governor last year.
Michael J. Widmer , president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonpartisan state budget watchdog group, said he is outraged by what the details, overtime, and educational bonuses are costing Massachusetts, especially given the increases in property taxes and shortage of police officers on the streets.
"These numbers are just staggering," Widmer said. "You have 351 cities and towns, the authorities, and utilities, so the costs are spread throughout so many different entities. The bottom-line number is hidden, but huge. . . . If it were in one place it might have sufficient shock value to create some political momentum."
Governor Deval Patrick declined to comment through a spokeswoman on whether he plans to try to rein in State Police pay. However, in response to criticism after the Globe reported last month that 225 troopers on the regular force made more than the governor last year, largely because of construction details, Patrick said reforming the practice was "not at the top of my list, to be perfectly candid."
Some police unions supported Patrick in the campaign last fall, though the State Police Association of Massachusetts endorsed then-Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey , his Republican opponent.
A spokesman for the State Police Association, Jeremy Crockford, declined to comment on police compensation. Union officials have previously defended the details, saying that having officers at work sites is safer than having civilians.
But Samuel R. Tyler , president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded watchdog group, said he worries about the costs that details add to doing business in Massachusetts. "The state needs to be concerned about that in terms of maintaining business and attracting businesses that create new jobs," he said.
Tyler said he is also concerned about all the overtime that troopers are working. "It seems many more hours than you would expect for somebody in a public safety position who you'd expect to be sharp and alert," he said.
Danny Levy, a spokeswoman for Massport, said the agency is trying to find ways to pay less for security at Logan, where troopers direct traffic, provide security in the terminals, and conduct random roadblocks. But, she said, Massport is bound by the State Police contract.
"We are looking at other options," Levy said, declining to be more specific about proposals under consideration.
She did say that troopers at Logan worked more hours after federal officials last August banned nearly all liquids in carry-on bags. The Transportation Security Administration imposed the restrictions after officials in the United Kingdom said they exposed an alleged terrorist plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners using liquid explosives carried onboard in drink bottles or smuggled in carry-on luggage.
Jon Carlisle , a spokesman for the turnpike authority, said that the fatal Big Dig tunnel collapse last July, which shut down large sections of the tunnel network and forced significant detours for months, inflated salaries because troopers earned large amounts of overtime to direct traffic.
Carlisle said the turnpike authority decided to offer overtime, which is more generous than detail pay, to follow the standard set by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who offered overtime to Boston officers for directing tunnel traffic.
Troopers on the turnpike also are responsible for patrolling the highway, including ticketing drivers for speeding and other violations.
Last year, the 176 troopers assigned to the turnpike earned an average of $155,700 and the 144 troopers assigned to Logan made an average of $138,300. The Globe included the $40-a-day reimbursement for driving their own cars to work in the calculation of turnpike troopers' average salary, but not the average pay for Logan troopers because it could not be determined how much they were reimbursed. All other troopers do not collect the vehicle reimbursement because they take home their cruisers.
On March 1, the turnpike authority eliminated the driving reimbursements, which cost the agency $1.4 million last year. Instead, it is giving troopers take-home cars with free gas, which is less expensive, Carlisle said.
Carlisle said the turnpike authority's budget is further strained by paying troopers for construction details, but that the agency must follow state law.
Massachusetts is the only state that requires use of police at nearly all road and utility work sites. Most states use less expensive civilian flag persons or electronic signs.
Widmer said troopers are generally paid $40 an hour for details, at least double what a civilian would get.
It appears that details are significant costs for both authorities. The six highest-paid troopers assigned to Logan each earned more than $31,000 on details; one earned $87,165 and another $79,275.
While the highest-paid troopers assigned to the turnpike made less on details, they made more from overtime. The top six earners made between $104,084 and $153,098 on overtime shifts.
A copy of the current State Police contract, obtained by the Globe, indicates that base salaries will continue to rise.
In exchange for curtailing the use of sick time, agreeing to allow the Legislature to set health insurance costs as with other unions, and accepting stricter physical fitness standards, the State Police union last year won a 5.5 percent salary increase retroactive to July 2005, and a 3.5 percent salary increase retroactive to January 2006. The contract calls for an additional 2.5 percent salary increase for troopers who pass the physical fitness test and wage increases of 3.75 percent effective this Jan. 1 and again on Jan. 1, 2008.
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Nearly one in 10 Massachusetts State Police officers made more than the governor last year, with 225 officers topping the $140,535 annual salary of the state's chief executive.
Four of the 2,338 state troopers were paid more than $200,000, and 123 others were paid more than $150,000, the salary of the governor's Cabinet secretaries, according to payroll information obtained by the Globe under the state public records law.
The salaries include regular pay, overtime, and State Police detail pay at roadwork sites. Last year, 60 State Police officers earned more than $40,000 working details. Massachusetts is the only state to automatically assign state and local police officers to nearly all road and utility work sites, instead of less expensive civilian flag persons.
The pay totals do not include money earned by officers working construction details paid for by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the Massachusetts Port Authority. Since those are substantial additional sources of income for many State Police troopers, it is likely that many more officers' pay topped $150,000 last year.
During fiscal 2006, State Police officers earned $6.1 million on turnpike details for the Big Dig alone. During calendar 2006, they made $7.2 million on Massport details, the agencies said yesterday.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonpartisan state budget watchdog group, said yesterday that the salaries are "vastly excessive and extreme" and blamed the cost of the details for inflating officers' pay.
"This confirms that police details are a costly and unnecessary burden on the state's taxpayers," Widmer said. "No other state comes close to Massachusetts in the use of details."
Widmer said the details have become ingrained as a political sacred cow. Officers are paid $40 an hour for the detail work, a rate set in the police union contract that is at least twice what a civilian would earn, according to Widmer.
A spokeswoman for Governor Deval Patrick declined to comment on the issue yesterday, though Patrick has said he might review detail pay. Most police unions supported Patrick in his landslide victory last year.
John Coflesky, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, defended the detail pay, saying that having officers at construction sites instead of civilians enhances public safety.
"With us, you get a cruiser, someone with the ability to stop and issue citations, someone with a radio," he said yesterday. ". . . A cruiser -- that deters people from going past a flag man at high rates of speed. The purpose behind this is to protect the people working at construction details. . . . A flag person -- they just don't have the same clout."
A 2004 study by Suffolk University's Beacon Hill Institute, examined data from details at construction sites in 103 cities and towns and found that the state has the worst accident rate in the country measured by property damage and the second worst measured by bodily injury.
But, the study excluded State Police details, because the agency said it could not produce necessary records for less than $5,800.
The study also estimated the costs of local police details in 2003 at $93.3 million, as much as $66.5 million more than civilians would have cost. Details also drive many Boston police officers' pay higher.
In 2005, nine Boston officers made more than $200,000, and more than 1,000 made more than $100,000.
Coflesky said State Police began working under a new contract last July 1 that runs until Dec. 31, 2008. State troopers' base pay increased by 3.75 percent this year and now ranges from $49,376 to $68,236 a year, depending on years of service.
Officers at higher ranks and detectives earn thousands more.
Detective Lieutenant William Powers, a spokesman for the State Police, said he believes that the compensation is fair.
"We're a full-time operation," he said. "There are a lot of demands placed on our personnel . . . that aren't on people in other jobs, and that's recognized when they bargain for a contract."
Powers pointed out that State Police officers made slightly more last year because the new contract was retroactive and included some money for work performed in prior years.
The payroll information also does not cover about 150 officers who are permanently assigned to the two authorities, Powers said.
He said those expenditures are not available because they are not part of the State Police budget.
Coflesky said private contractors and other state agencies reimburse the State Police for their officers' work on details.
But Widmer said that ultimately the consumer pays.
"It's of no import whose budget it comes out of; it comes out of the taxpayer's pocket," he said. "At this point, there seems to be no political will to change it."
Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.