A federal judge has ruled against a group of Chicago police officers who argued they should be paid overtime for responding to work-related calls and emails on their smartphones when they're not on duty.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier says the city has established practices for filing overtime and didn't do anything to prevent officers from using it.
Sgt. Jeffrey Allen brought the class-action lawsuit five years ago. He and the other officers contend they should be paid for performing off-duty on department-requisitioned BlackBerry phones.
During the bench trial earlier this year, one officer testified he spent three to five hours working off-duty on his BlackBerry.
