Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say they have spent roughly $447,000 on patrols and other work related to Occupy Charlotte since the movement began in October.

A detailed breakdown of the expenses was not immediately available Thursday. But police Capt. Jeff Estes said the figure was determined by tracking officers' hours during the past few months and calculating their salary for those hours. It includes events from Occupy Charlotte's initial march on Oct. 8 that drew more than 600 people, through this week's enforcement of new city rules on demonstrations.

CMPD has had officers patrol Occupy Charlotte activities at the makeshift "tent city" on the old City Hall lawn, as well as during marches to various sites in uptown since the fall. For example, police have had a patrol cruiser with an officer inside parked across the street from the campsite.

On Monday, about 60 officers were observed working to remove tents from the lawn as part of the new ordinance banning camping on city property. Altogether, the estimated labor costs were pegged at $18,000 for the day.

Estes, commander of the police department's central division, said the department reallocated officers from other duties in order to patrol Occupy Charlotte since the fall. Estes said police did not use overtime funds to cover the tab.

Police regularly have officers patrol protesters and other demonstrations.

But Estes said the Occupy Charlotte movement was different because people were essentially living at old City Hall for months. The around-the-clock coverage led to greater costs, he said.

Estes said the officers' goals were twofold: to monitor activities and respond to any incidents during the demonstration, while also protecting the rights of the protesters. He said police did have to respond to some problems at the camp, including fights, reports of homeless people and arrests for unlawful burning and public urination. A missing teen also was found at the camp late last year.

He stressed that patrolling Occupy Charlotte did not result in a lack of police coverage in other areas of the city. "I don't want anybody to think their neighborhood went unpoliced because of Occupy Charlotte."

Michael Zytkow, a member of Occupy Charlotte, said he feels the police department's interaction with the protesters has been "somewhat disappointing." He questioned whether the department needed to use so much manpower, given the nonviolent nature of the movement, and he said there were times when Occupy Charlotte members requested help from officers and did not receive it.

Estes said police "have responded to every single incident that's been pointed out by Occupy Charlotte or any other citizen." He said he was not aware of the alleged incidents where officers did not respond to group members' requests for help, and that Zytkow and others hadn't raised the issue with him during past meetings.

Zytkow said he would want more details on how police spent money on Occupy Charlotte and whether it was a necessary cost. "We feel the public should be more outraged at CMPD wasting this money as opposed to our expression of our political beliefs."

Other municipalities also have reported spending money on manpower and other resources in order to patrol the various "Occupy" events across the country.

The Associated Press reported in November that Raleigh police were spending an estimated $1,500 in overtime pay, on average, each day on the protests. A large demonstration at the old Capitol building in October cost the department about $26,000, a police spokesman told the wire service. Cleve R. Wootson Jr. contributed