A veteran NYPD lieutenant who made more than $100,000 above his base pay in 2024 is facing an internal probe amid a department-wide crackdown on overtime ordered by Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Lt. Ira Jablonsky has been transferred to an East Harlem post after working for years in the Community Affairs Bureau in south Brooklyn, where he worked closely with the Orthodox Jewish community, sources said.
Public payroll records show he earned $307,000 in 2024 — $164,000 base pay plus about $140,000 in additional pay. Jablonsky, who has already been interviewed by Internal Affairs, according to sources, has not been hit with any departmental charges.
Police sources said Jablonsky retired in February but had a change of heart and returned to the force July 7, well within the one-year time frame during which retirees can come back to work. Soon after, sources said, a complaint was filed with the Internal Affairs Bureau over overtime filed since his return.
Jablonsky, who did not respond to a request for comment, was administratively transferred to the 25th Precinct in East Harlem on Aug. 27. Such transfers are often made during internal investigations.
He joined the NYPD in 2002 and was promoted to lieutenant in 2015. Four years later, he was promoted to lieutenant special assignment — earning a captain’s salary — and has earned more than $100,000 above his base pay for each of the past three years.
The NYPD’s soaring overtime is frequently highlighted by the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
Top brass typically note that in addition to the numerous planned events requiring hundreds and sometimes thousands of officers, such as the West Indian Day Parade, the UN General Assembly and the Times Square celebration on New Year’s Eve, there are many unscheduled events such as protests that contribute to overtime costs.
At the end of last year, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD’s top uniformed officer,resigned after an underling, Lt. Quathisha Epps, accused him of demanding sex from her, sometimes at police headquarters at One Police Plaza, in return for overtime pay.
NYPD; Shawn Inglima / New York Daily News
NYPD Lieutenant Quathisha Epps (left) filed her retirement papers last month after accusing ex-Chief Jeffrey Maddrey (right) of a sex-for-overtime arrangement. (NYPD; Shawn Inglima / New York Daily News)
Epps, working in an administrative position, in fiscal year 2024 earned $400,000, more than anyone else in the department including the commissioner, including $204,000 in overtime. Maddrey has denied the allegations, which are now the subject of a joint city and federal probe.
In the wake of the scandal, Tisch replaced Chief Miguel Iglesias as head of Internal Affairs and transferred 16 cops who earned more than $100,000 in overtime last fiscal year.
The commissioner also ordered that each NYPD bureau have an overtime compliance officer responsible for filing monthly reports and explaining any overtime hours that exceed the monthly cap.
On Monday, Tisch at a Midtown breakfast hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission, said the new rules are “not rocket science” but by “setting the standards and changing the culture,” the department has cut overtime about 15% for each of the past several months.
“There were basically no overtime controls in the Police Department,” Tisch said. “I may be exaggerating a little bit but if there were I didn’t see them.”
