Albert "Mad Dog" Marcus is everywhere.
He's dressed in his pin-striped, double-breasted suits and fedora, standing over a body, working his regular beat as a Balitmore homicide detective. He's keeping fans safe at an Orioles game. He's in his uniform on hot the concourse at Pimlico on Preakness Day -- hoping some other cop sloughed off his overtime shift so Marcus could grab it. In case you haven't guessed it by now, that's him on the left, in a photo by The Sun's Amy Davis.
Who can blame him?
He only earned $173,791 last year. Most of it came in overtime -- his base salary is $70,176.
Marcus consistantly tops the overtime list and last year only three other city employees made more than he did -- the finance director, the state's attorney (technically not a city employee as she's elected to office) and his boss, the police commissioner. Yes, Marcus has made more than the mayor in each of the past three years.
Annie Linskey details overtime expenditures in her story today in the Baltimore Sun. Some departments used overtime because they couldn't afford to hire new people. The Baltimore Police Department has reduced overtime from $31.7 million in 2007 to $14.2 million this year. Police also note that crime, including homicides, has dropped to historic 30-year lows.
Annie's story includes a sidebar on Marcus, (and a searchable database of city overtime) the dapper detective who was profiled in a 2001 fashion column. He wears custom-made shirts with french cuffs. He also puts down murders -- including one allegedly committed by a 14-year-old boy this year -- and that requires working aroundt he clock after the body falls.
His boss, Maj. Terrence P. McLarney, defended Marcus' work ethic: Marcus hums like a bird," the homicide commander told Annie. "He loves to put the uniform on. He's a good cop. He works very hard."