2018–2024 Analysis
Seven Years of CHP Overtime
Tracking compensation trends across 7,000 records and 1,471 individually matched officers. All data sourced from TransparentCalifornia public payroll records.
Total Overtime Paid (Top 1,000 Earners)
Combined overtime for the top 1,000 highest-paid CHP employees each year. The trend is consistently upward.
From $37,082,510 in 2018 to $67,352,128 in 2024 — a 82% increase.
Officers Earning Over $100K in Overtime
The number of CHP employees pulling six-figure overtime has exploded — from 63 in 2018 to 346 in 2024.
Highest Individual Overtime by Year
The single highest overtime earner each year. The ceiling keeps rising.
The 2024 peak of $436,423 is 4.8x the California median household income — in overtime alone.
Officers Earning More Overtime Than Base Salary
The number of employees whose overtime pay exceeds their regular salary.
Chronic Overtime: 7-Year Totals
Officers appearing in 5+ years of data, ranked by cumulative overtime. These are not one-off spikes — these are sustained patterns.
Red bars indicate officers who have earned over $1 million in overtime across the 7-year period. This is overtime only — not including base salary, other pay, or benefits.
Biggest Year-Over-Year OT Spikes
The largest single-year increases in overtime. A spike may have legitimate causes (special assignments, disaster response) — or it may indicate a change worth examining.
Spike = largest single-year increase in overtime compared to the prior year. Red bars indicate spikes over $120,000 in a single year.
Top 20 Career Overtime Earners
Officers with the highest cumulative overtime across all available years.
| Name | Rank | Years | Total OT (7yr) | Avg OT/yr | Max Single Year | Biggest Spike |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luis A Murillo | Officer | 7 | $1,355,414 | $193,631 | $258,100 | +$104,847 (2021) |
| Artemio O Castillo | Officer | 7 | $1,316,731 | $188,104 | $245,500 | +$42,041 (2022) |
| Enrique A Melgar | Officer | 7 | $1,269,185 | $181,312 | $307,995 | +$77,683 (2023) |
| Jeffrey W Moran | Officer | 7 | $1,244,209 | $177,744 | $284,353 | +$61,109 (2023) |
| Nathaniel B White | Sergeant | 7 | $1,229,763 | $175,680 | $275,392 | +$68,653 (2019) |
| Eric A Nicholas | Sergeant | 7 | $1,219,724 | $174,246 | $233,502 | +$105,098 (2021) |
| Michael G Simpson | Officer | 7 | $1,207,219 | $172,460 | $238,774 | +$55,658 (2021) |
| Anthony D Zill | Officer | 7 | $1,193,845 | $170,549 | $232,897 | +$89,779 (2022) |
| Dale D Gallow | Officer | 7 | $1,180,222 | $168,603 | $232,674 | +$57,884 (2022) |
| Curtis C Glace | Sergeant | 7 | $1,164,995 | $166,428 | $194,621 | +$45,484 (2020) |
| Jorge Mellos | Officer | 7 | $1,140,058 | $162,865 | $211,663 | +$52,160 (2022) |
| Steven F Pool | Officer | 7 | $1,124,706 | $160,672 | $195,517 | +$82,210 (2020) |
| Jose A Centeno | Sergeant | 7 | $1,116,495 | $159,499 | $230,369 | +$48,602 (2019) |
| De\'Shawn R Cobbs | Officer | 7 | $1,089,111 | $155,587 | $205,345 | +$37,715 (2024) |
| Cliff E Morrison | Sergeant | 7 | $1,083,249 | $154,750 | $262,247 | +$138,085 (2023) |
| Philip J Han | Sergeant | 7 | $1,080,305 | $154,329 | $260,515 | +$72,759 (2022) |
| Leonard A Tomboc | Sergeant | 7 | $1,080,163 | $154,309 | $436,423 | +$141,531 (2024) |
| Lawrence J Colon | Officer | 7 | $1,062,398 | $151,771 | $198,902 | +$93,451 (2023) |
| Michael May | Officer | 7 | $1,033,228 | $147,604 | $179,324 | +$32,213 (2022) |
| Brian M Otoole | Officer | 7 | $1,024,286 | $146,327 | $194,931 | +$21,938 (2023) |
Methodology
Data covers 2018–2024, sourced from TransparentCalifornia.com public payroll records. Each year represents the top 1,000 highest-paid CHP employees by total compensation.
Officer matching across years uses normalized full names. This method may miss officers with name changes or misspellings across years. 1,471 officers were successfully matched across 2 or more years.
"Spike" is defined as the largest single-year increase in overtime compared to the prior year for the same officer. Spikes may reflect legitimate operational assignments, not necessarily misconduct.