VICTORIA -- The Victoria Police Department spent more on overtime pay for officers to police protests and rallies during the first two months of 2020 than in all of last year combined.

More than twice as much, in fact, according to numbers released by the department Friday.

VicPD spent $183,037 on overtime pay for officers to attend 34 public rallies, marches and protests between Jan. 1 and March 5, according to the department.

In all of 2019, the department paid out $82,765 in overtime to cover 40 such events.

The department stipulated that rallies and protests that spanned multiple days were counted as a single event.

Officers attend such events to conduct outreach, provide traffic control and ensure public safety, the department said Friday.

"Whenever possible, on-duty resources are used to provide public safety," VicPD said. "However, if the size and complexity of an event requires it, additional officers will be deployed on overtime to ensure public safety."