By Shaila K. Dewan, The New York Times
Twenty-four detectives and six sergeants suspected of swindling the Police Department out of a total of $45,000 to $50,000 in overtime were transferred to patrol duty over the weekend, Deputy Commissioner Michael P. O’Looney, a department spokesman, said Saturday.
All have been hit with departmental charges ranging from falsifying reports to conduct unbecoming an officer, Mr. O’Looney said.
Investigators concluded from E-ZPass records that some of the officers were not on the job when they claimed to have been.
In all, 69 officers and supervisors in Brooklyn South Narcotics are thought to have taken part in the scheme, which involved filing for overtime hours not worked, Mr. O’Looney said. Overtime is about $45 an hour for a detective.
Departmental charges or less serious administrative charges, like failure to supervise, have been filed against nearly all of them, the culmination of an investigation that lasted more than a year, Mr. O’Looney said.
The transfers, resulting in a loss of prestige, but not of rank or pay, applied to people against whom the department had the most evidence, Mr. O’Looney said. The transfers were first reported in Newsday Saturday.
The detectives work in teams of four. After an arrest, only two stay to process paperwork, but investigators believe that in some cases all four were filing for overtime, with their supervisors’ approval, Mr. O’Looney said.
The detectives’ union objected to the transfers on the grounds that they would affect detectives who were not involved in the investigation, who would be moved to fill the empty slots in Brooklyn South Narcotics.
“It causes a major disruption for good detectives working in other narcotics squads,” said Michael J. Palladino, vice president of the union, the Detectives’ Endowment Association.
Mr. O’Looney said that the scheme took place about two years ago.