WASHINGTON, DC – Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier’s All Hands on Deck (AHOD) program has suffered another setback. The District’s Public Employee Relation Board has upheld a 2009 arbitration decision requiring overtime pay for officers required to work AHOD and directs police officials to rescind orders enabling the initiative.

AHOD, which is a major crime prevention according to the chief or “the most expensive public relations campaign this city has ever had” according to FOP Chairman Kristopher Baumann, requires that all officers work eight-hour patrol shifts on dates selected by the chief and reschedule their time off.

The FOP and Chief Lanier have very different views on the PERB’s ruling. According to the FOP, the PERB’s decision “upheld a 2009 arbitration decision in favor of the FOP, in which the arbitrator ruled that FOP members are entitled to penalty overtime pay for AHOD and that the Department is to cease scheduling AHOD deployments.”

Chief Lanier believes that the PERB’s ruling only covers 2009 AHOD.

“Contrary to what the FOP asserts, the ruling was not a directive to discontinue All Hands on Deck,” she said in a statement issued Monday. “The decision is limited to the 2009 AHODs and thus has no impact on any of the other AHODs.”

Obviously this isn’t over yet.

From WJLA.com and The Washington Times.