Exclusive | How NYPD’s top earner raked in $403K last year — including an eye-popping amount in overtime

The highest-paid NYPD employee last year raked in over $400,000 doing administrative work — with more than half of her haul coming from staggering overtime pay, The Post has learned. 

Lt. Quathisha Epps, a 19-year veteran in NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey’s office, pocketed an eye-watering $403,515 in fiscal year 2024, having pulled in $204,453.48 in overtime pay on top of her base salary of $164,477 and fringe benefits, according to city payroll records.  

The astonishing overtime amount alone — which is the highest paid by the department in at least a decade, according to NYC Open Data — would be enough to cover the salaries of three new NYPD officers with the department’s starting salary of $58,580.

Epps’ bloated total compensation even eclipsed her boss’ earnings by more than $111,400. Maddrey, who is the top uniformed cop, earned $292,069 in fiscal year 2024, according to city records.

The NYPD’s top earner, who is a Lieutenant Special Assignment, raked in the impressive six-figure income doing administrative tasks in Maddrey’s office, such as personnel, according to a source familiar with her role.

The revelation enraged the NYPD’s rank-and-file putting their lives on the line on the streets.

“What administrative work requires you to stay there 115 to 120 hours every f–king month to apply that type of money?” one Bronx cop with 20 years on the job raged to The Post. 

“That’s ridiculous for someone who’s never in the streets,” he added. “She doesn’t have an arrest, is not even in a position to [be] dealing with prisoners or courts at all.” 

Epps, 51, worked nearly 1627 hours of overtime plus her regular shifts — or an average of roughly 74 hours per week, records showed.

“Are any detectives on the street making that kind of money? What about captains or inspectors running commands?” another veteran cop with over 25 years on the job barked.

“They’re not making that kind of money.”

A three-time cancer survivor, Epps’ overall pay last fiscal year also dwarfed the total compensation of the NYPD’s ex-Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who earned a total of $288,332 in fiscal year 2024, records show.

Other NYPD officials who topped the NYPD’s payroll last year included Christopher Millevoi, a 13-year stationary engineer who raked in $389,192.65 by pulling in a staggering $200,859 in overtime pay, and Lt. John P. Brennan, a 26-year department vet who banked $378,437.62, with $168,132.38 in overtime. 

In total, 392 NYPD employees pocketed at least $100,000 in overtime this past fiscal year, records show.

At a heated city council budget hearing in May, the NYPD’s top brass attributed at least $168 million in unplanned overtime pay to policing anti-Israel protests and migrant shelters. 

“Employees are always going to get overtime because the alternative is to have too many employees,” said Ken Girardin, research director at the conservative watchdog Empire Center for Public Policy. 

“But public employees, especially in an operation as large as the NYPD, shouldn’t be getting $100,000 in overtime. That shows something is fundamentally broken.” 

Epps justified her voluminous overtime hours and earnings with the fact that she juggles “more than one role” in the department, but referred to the NYPD’s Public Information Office for clarity on her responsibilities. 

“I’m a really good lady, I do positive things,” she said. 

The NYPD did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.