Economic misconduct by cops

            I was honored to have been able to serve under Chief Bill Parker at the LAPD.  He truly is credited with changing the culture of the LAPD, during the late 1940s and 1950s, from an anachronistic, corrupt police agency to a professional one.  He was a strict disciplinarian.  Theft was theft whether it was $5 or $50,000.

            Theft in law enforcement seems to be a recurring incident of misconduct these days.  It seems to have become even more prevalent since the economic downturn in 2008.  I wrote an article for the PATC eNewsletter back then signaling that it was time for every agency to refocus its efforts to prevent and/or uncover this abuse.

            What kinds of thefts are we seeing these days?  Chiefs, Sheriffs, officers and trusted clerical personnel stealing from the evidence room, selling police evidence/equipment on EBay, and misusing police funds set up for official business.  Police union officials are misusing funds.  Police officers entrusted with funds set up for killed or wounded officers are caught using these for their own purposes.  Manipulation of time sheets, overtime, and paid detail work with the employees often triple dipping – working one job yet getting paid from two or three different sources for the same hours worked.  Vice and narcotic officers taking money based on alleged payments to nonexistent informants.  Theft by special operations units during high-risk raids and warrant service.  Employees misrepresenting financial incomes and swearing under penalty of perjury to obtain mortgages.  Defraud linked to misuse of the workers’ compensation program. 

            What seems to be some of the driving forces for this misconduct?  The most common appears to be that the officer got used to having a certain level of income with constant overtime and paid details.  They spent to that level.  When the economy tanked these sources of income dried up.  But their mortgages, car/boat payments, and credit card bills didn’t!

            Another common factor seems to be gambling addiction.  They get themselves so overloaded with debt and hope that gambling more will get them out of it.  The gambling establishments don’t build those megaresorts on winners!

            Continuing economic misconduct is uncovered in the various real and sting operations for protection of drug dealers and gamblers.  There also have been several instances of steering traffic collision victims to favored repair shops for kickbacks to the officers.  

            And, of course, there still is the pressure of substance abuse; alcohol, drugs and steroids.  Steroid use can run as much as a $1000 a month.

            So what should we be doing in our agencies?

            First, make roll call/briefings and in-service training more realistic by using actual economic misconduct incidents.  Do a Google search or use a pretty comprehensive site – policemisconduct.net.  Get examples to use with your people and show them that this form of misconduct will also end up in significant jail time.  Yes, we need to remind them that theft is wrong!

            Second, ensure that the auditing of special and operating funds is real.  Overtime and paid details can still be done in-house.  These realistically should be done monthly, but quarterly would still be acceptable.  Look for end of watch arrests to pump up overtime.  Consider a sudden increase in traffic ticket writing as a potential attempt to increase court time.  Consider whether teams or watches are putting excess numbers of officers on arrest reports to increase potential court time.  Someone involved in the task should not do the audit of this usage.  Special funds, like confidential monies, community action, charitable fundraising, youth programs and employee union finances can only be done by an outside approved accounting firm to remove any stigma of impropriety.  Most of these types of audits are done on an annual basis.

            Third, don’t overlook the evidence/property room audit.  Where we get into trouble is guns, narcotics and money.  Too often an agency allows this audit to be done by the employee responsible for the task.  It doesn’t work!

            Fourth, everyone in the agency must keep their eyes open and ears attuned to changes in fellow employee behavior.  You’re not snitching, you’re helping everyone in your agency if you identify this type of misconduct early on.  Look for unusual spending sprees.  Which employees are hogging OT or paid details?  Who’s suddenly become stressed and talks more about money problems? 

            Fifth, consider the use of annual financial disclosure reporting.  I know this is controversial in law enforcement agencies, but this is common in all sectors of the private employment field.  Nearly every elected official has to submit these types of oversight forms.  It would be unrealistic to require all police employees to do this.  But, those in high profile, vulnerable tasks and assignments known to present temptation should be required to submit these pretty much innocuous forms. 

            And lastly, train your IA/OPS investigators how to best conduct an investigation of economic misconduct. These are significantly different than most of our other misconduct investigations.  My good friend Steve Rothlein wrote “Hidden Assets” regarding these types of investigations and you can access this at patc.com.