A child opens the car door of a Brookline Police cruiser in front of a member of the Brookline Police Department Animal Control at Brookline Day on Sept. 14. Photo by Kate Kotlyar
Nineteen of the town’s 20 highest-paid employees in 2025 were members of the Brookline Police Department, according to payroll data obtained through a public records request.
Officer Robert Mayer led the list with $396,967 in total earnings, including $107,343 in overtime and $166,019 in detail pay. His base salary was $75,340.
Among the 19 officers in the top 20, there were eight lieutenants, seven officers and four sergeants.
More than two thirds of police officers took home more than double their base salary.
Data: All Brookline town employee compensation in 2025
The column titled “Other Amount” compiles all other forms of pay including holidays, sick, longevity, Quinn education incentive, Admin Day buyout and more. Altogether, $31,183,583.58 fell into this category.
The only non-police employee in the top 20 was Fire Chief John Sullivan, who ranked 12th with earnings of $299,382. Linus Guillory, the former school district superintendent, was the highest-paid school employee in 2025 with a total compensation of $272,313, despite resigning at the end of June. Town and school officials did not respond to questions from Brookline.News about the details of Guillory’s compensation.
Paul Campbell, superintendent of the Brookline Police Department, said officers have typically been among the town’s highest earners because of additional compensation beyond their base salaries. He attributed the high figures to a staffing shortage that has affected the department since 2020, which has required overtime to be allocated nearly every shift.
“It’s been going on long enough that it’s hard to say that it’s new,” Campbell said of the department’s short-handedness.
On average, police officers collectively earned 27% above their base salaries in overtime. Campbell said the overtime system is not monopolized, however.
“We print out an overtime list, and it’s based on how many hours you have been offered previously,” he said.
The department also enforces an “18-hour rule,” which prohibits any member from working more than 18 hours in a single 24-hour period.
Michael Keaveney, president of the Brookline Police Union, said Brookline police’s low staff-retention rate is a key driver of overtime spending.
He said Brookline Police Department’s base salaries are lower than those in surrounding communities. That disparity, along with the high cost of living in Brookline, has hurt the department’s ability to hire and retain enough police officers, he said.
“Very few people work for the police department and live in the town, and if they do, they’ve been on this job for 30 years,” Keaveney said. “Every other person commutes here.”
Michael McCarthy, the fourth-highest-paid employee in 2025, recently retired as a police lieutenant and made $362,138 against a base salary of $94,348.
“Before he retired, [McCarthy] was actually one of the hardest workers here,” Keaveney said. He noted McCarthy worked overtime and detail hours but was also involved in major cases like the murder of an MIT professor in December.
Detail pay also contributes to inflated police salaries. The work is voluntary but paid by private contractors rather than the town, Campbell said.
Campbell also said detail pay has no impact on the town budget, and instead the town receives a “substantial” benefit by receiving 10% of all money paid to officers on detail.
“Last year, the town made close to half a million dollars based on police officers working details,” Campbell said.
Keaveney has observed a generational shift in attitudes toward work-life balance within the force, with younger officers showing less interest in taking on extra hours.
Keaveny described McCarthy as being part of that “old police school police mindset,” where officers would work as much as necessary to support their families.
“You could count on him to do the work,” Keaveney said. “What we’re finding now is those types of employees are starting to disappear, the ones that are willing to come in and do the work voluntarily.”
The 2025 payroll figures reflect trends seen in previous years.
Campbell said the department is working to close the staffing gap by sending eight new recruits to the police academy and seeking lateral hires from other municipalities.
“That should relieve some of the pressure, as far as the constant need for hiring overtime almost every shift,” Campbell said.
Keaveney acknowledged that the large police salaries can draw scrutiny, but said they reflect the work needed to keep the town safe.
“You might see the big salaries at the end of the year, but people are working constantly to obtain that,” Keaveney said.