High overtime costs are hurting the Warren Police Department budget, and the police chief is expected to ask the council for more to cover the costs, EastBayRI.com reported.

Chief Peter Achilli predicts overtime could cost the town more than $316,000 by the time the fiscal year ends at the end of the month, the website reported. The town budgeted $270,000.

The shortfall results largely from a retirement and an officer out on extended sick leave, leaving the department short-handed. A Superior Court-ordered a police detail on on Thomas Koolen's Libby Lane property — where Koolen stored 100 illegal floating docks — has yet to be paid for, further hitting the budget, Achilli wrote.

The good news, the chief wrote, is unexpended balances in other police accounts may make up the difference, and the department is ecpected to send a new recruit to the police training academy this summer, helping with the staffing shortage, eastbayri.com reported.