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Search For Escaped Killers Richard Matt, David Sweat Cost More Than $1M Per Day

ALBANY (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Payroll records suggest the hunt for two escaped killers in upstate New York cost more than $1 million a day, with overtime costs alone for state troopers and corrections officers $22 million higher than last year.

State comptroller records obtained by The Associated Press for the June and July pay periods show overtime totaled $41 million for the corrections department and $17.6 million for the state police, roughly double the combined 2014 total.

Richard Matt and David Sweat
Richard Matt and David Sweat (credit: CBS2)

Those two agencies led the massive 23-day manhunt by more than 1,100 officers for Richard Matt and David Sweat, who escaped June 6 from Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora.

State forest rangers, federal authorities and Vermont police also joined the search that ended with Matt shot dead June 27 and Sweat wounded and caught two days later.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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