toomuchtime_
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The city has spent more than $400,000 in police costs to deal with the Occupy Philadelphia protest on the west side of City Hall, Nutter administration officials estimated Tuesday.
The figure includes $164,000 in police overtime through the first five days of the protest - the bulk of the city's out-of-pocket costs - and an additional $237,000 for the plainclothes and uniformed officers stationed at Dilworth Plaza and other City Hall locations on their regular shifts.
"In one sense the added cost is the overtime number, but there is also a deployment issue - the officers are here instead of other places," said Mayor Nutter's spokesman, Mark McDonald.
Now entering its seventh day, the demonstration has drawn several hundred people or more to City Hall during peak periods each day. The number of tents that provide overnight accommodations increased to about 100 from 80 over the weekend.
City budget director Rebecca Rhynhart - now initiating an effort to pare about $47 million from the budget to compensate for three months of weaker-than-expected revenue - said she would ask all city departments to provide reports on what the demonstration is costing them.
The bulk of the expense comes from the Police Department, but McDonald identified several minor items, including daily trash pickups and a hookup to City Hall's electrical system allowing demonstrators to recharge computers, telephones, and other electronic equipment and keep their website updated.
"They will ultimately receive a bill for the electricity they're using . . . and they've agreed to pay it," McDonald said.
So far, the protesters have had to pay only $20 for an open-ended demonstration permit, required when more than 75 people gather at a public place. Some talk of staying indefinitely.
Occupy Philadelphia costs city $400,000 in police surveillance - Philly.com
Links to the costs to other cities
At a cost of $400,000 a week, the cost to the city's residents could quickly run into millions of dollars at a time when the city has already been forced to cut back on some services because of declining revenues. Should these protesters and those in other cities be required to cover the costs to the city, so that its residents, often those most vulnerable and dependent on city services, do not have to face further cutbacks because of Occupy Philadelphia?
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