Months of protests at the state Capitol and elsewhere in California have now exceeded $70 million in law enforcement overtime and other costs and that number is expected to increase as more figures are compiled, newly released documents show.

The price tag for policing and cleaning up after protests in Sacramento against police brutality in the past month now top $40 million and are mounting, according to figures provided to The Sacramento Bee in response to public records act requests.

Documents show that Sacramento police have spent an estimated $2.1 million in overtime and another $100,000 in other services and supplies responding to protests since the May 25 death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man whose death while being detained by police there spawned worldwide demonstrations. Those figures do not include damage estimates to vehicles and police buildings, the department said.

The Sacramento Sheriff’s Office estimates it spent more than $1.3 million in overtime and other expenses responding to protests through June 18.

Those costs are in addition to the $38.2 million the California Highway Patrol said it spent on overtime through mid-June, a figure that is expected to increase because of continuing protests, including one Saturday in which a statue of Junipero Serra in Capitol Park was torn down.

Another $24.5 million was spent deploying the National Guard to protect sites in Sacramento and elsewhere in California, and more than $1.9 million was spent removing graffiti, boarding up and replacing windows and providing support services for waste removal and other items, according to the state Department of General Services.

Nearly $1 million in overtime and meal costs also was spent by the CHP to respond to protests in May against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order responding to the coronavirus crisis.

To date, the total spent on George Floyd and COVID-19 protests tallies more than $70 million and does not include amounts spent in cities outside Sacramento by local law enforcement agencies. The CHP is still compiling a tally of costs in response to a request from The Bee.

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