State police employees last year added an average of 33 percent of their base pay in overtime and road details, according to figures from the state controller’s office. That average represents a range from employees who made only their base pay to three troopers who collected more in overtime and detail pay than in base wages.

The examination of state police road detail and overtime pay is part of a larger Providence Journal report on the costs of state government. The Journal requested state pay records for calendar year 2006 under the state’s Access to Public Records Act. An overview of those records was presented in reports last week. The controller’s figures discussed in those reports lumped state police road detail pay in with base pay, making it difficult to obtain a clear picture of who was reaping the most in extra pay.

Road details, when a trooper is stationed at a construction site, are paid a set hourly rate. Overtime is paid at time-and-a-half at the trooper’s hourly wage. The two combined can be described as “extra earnings” on top of base pay.

The 33-percent average in extra earnings puts the state police in a league with the state’s top overtime departments: Corrections and Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals. Corrections paid an average of 35 percent of base pay in overtime, and MHRH paid 25 percent.

But extra earnings in the state police are different from overtime in those departments in several ways.One is the size of the payrolls of each department and the total overtime dollars they rack up. Corrections paid $24 million in overtime in 2006, according to the controller’s office. (Corrections officials dispute that figure, saying they spent $17.5 million in the 12 months ending June 30, 2006.) MHRH spent $20.6 million. The state police tab was $3.8 million in overtime and $1.4 million in detail pay for a total of $5.2 million in extra earnings.

Also, a much smaller range is covered by state police extra earnings when compared with base pay. The top extra earner in the state police, as a percentage of base pay, was Cpl. Michael J. Rosa, who received $62,376.60 in base pay, plus $19,521.83 in overtime and $54,739 in detail pay. His extra earnings of $74,260.83 were 19-percent higher than his base pay. In all, three troopers made more in extra earnings than in base pay last year.

By contrast, Corrections and MHRH had numerous employees who made more in overtime than in base pay. Each of those departments had employees who were paid twice as much in overtime as in base pay.

Also, according to Col. Brendan P. Doherty, superintendent of the state police, some of the overtime is for special initiatives, such as reducing the number of accidents and combating drunken driving, that are paid for by the federal government.

Also, state police road details are charged to the Department of Transportation, which charges the details to the contractors working on construction projects. Though many of those projects are paid for under state contracts, the state is eligible for federal reimbursement.

Doherty said that, as in Corrections and MHRH, overtime is unavoidable in the state police.

“We need to keep the state safe, and we need to keep the troopers safe,” he said. “We do the best we can to minimize overtime because we realize it’s burdensome for my budget and for the state’s budget.”

Road details were adopted after transportation and state police officials noticed a large number of accidents at construction sites, Doherty said. Merely having a trooper and a cruiser present at the sites has reduced the number of accidents, he said. “Their main mission out there is to slow the traffic at the construction sites.”

pparker@projo.com