7 ms·

Boston police officers arrested for stealing over $200K in overtime fraud

47 points by ideals 6y ago

ideals 6y ago
Similar story developing in Seattle wrt SPD overtime pay https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/how-a-seattle-patrol-officer-became-the-citys-highest-earner-paid-for-the-equivalent-of-two-years-within-the-span-of-one/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/how...
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  Might you be keeping track of these somewhere? I'd be interested in sponsoring en masse FOIA requests (via Muckrock) of police department budget and accounting data from the largest metros to suss this out across the US.
  - mft_ 6y ago
    That would be a much more interesting Kickstarter than many...
xkcd-sucks 6y ago
Just for context, widespread overtime fraud in the Massachusetts state police, BPD, etc., has been common knowledge for years. Most of the individuals named stole well over $100k and an entire state police troop was disbanded, although the vast majority have not been prosecuted. https://www.universalhub.com/search?q_as=overtime https://www.universalhub.com/search?q_as=overtime
MarkMc 6y ago
Reminds me of this quote from Charlie Munger: In the New York Police Department, they have a simple system. Your pension is based on your pay in your final year. So when anyone reaches the final year, everybody cooperates to give him about 1,000 hours of overtime. And he retires – in some cases after a mere 20 years of service – with this large income. Well, of course his fellow employees help him cheat the system. In substance, that’s what’s happened. But the one thing I guarantee you is that nobody has the least sense of shame. They soon get the feeling they’re entitled to do it. Everybody did it before, everybody’s doing it now – so they just keep doing it. I wonder whether the $200,000 in fraudulent overtime at Boston PD would have been worth much more in lifetime pensions.
- newen 6y ago
  Obvious question is why pension takes overtime pay into consideration in the first place.
imtringued 6y ago
Does the opposite happen? There may be cops looking for ways to pad their overtime with wrongful arrests or criminal charges.

47 points by ideals 6y ago

Similar story developing in Seattle wrt SPD overtime pay https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/how-a-seattle-patrol-officer-became-the-citys-highest-earner-paid-for-the-equivalent-of-two-years-within-the-span-of-one/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/how...

toomuchtodo 6y ago
Might you be keeping track of these somewhere? I'd be interested in sponsoring en masse FOIA requests (via Muckrock) of police department budget and accounting data from the largest metros to suss this out across the US.
- mft_ 6y ago
  That would be a much more interesting Kickstarter than many...

xkcd-sucks 6y ago

Just for context, widespread overtime fraud in the Massachusetts state police, BPD, etc., has been common knowledge for years. Most of the individuals named stole well over $100k and an entire state police troop was disbanded, although the vast majority have not been prosecuted. https://www.universalhub.com/search?q_as=overtime https://www.universalhub.com/search?q_as=overtime

MarkMc 6y ago

Reminds me of this quote from Charlie Munger: In the New York Police Department, they have a simple system. Your pension is based on your pay in your final year. So when anyone reaches the final year, everybody cooperates to give him about 1,000 hours of overtime. And he retires – in some cases after a mere 20 years of service – with this large income. Well, of course his fellow employees help him cheat the system. In substance, that’s what’s happened. But the one thing I guarantee you is that nobody has the least sense of shame. They soon get the feeling they’re entitled to do it. Everybody did it before, everybody’s doing it now – so they just keep doing it. I wonder whether the $200,000 in fraudulent overtime at Boston PD would have been worth much more in lifetime pensions.

newen 6y ago
Obvious question is why pension takes overtime pay into consideration in the first place.

imtringued 6y ago

Does the opposite happen? There may be cops looking for ways to pad their overtime with wrongful arrests or criminal charges.