The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) - The Boston Police Department has paid hundreds of police officers to be on more than one private detail at the same time, according to a Boston Globe investigation.
The department paid 296 officers out of 2,035 for working assigned shifts in different locations simultaneously on 724 occasions during the 2 1/2 years ending July 31.
The double-dipping was spread across rank, from patrolmen up to captains, including a commander of the department’s Paid Detail Assignment Unit. Many benefited more than once: 150 officers collected detail pay for overlapping shifts at least twice, and one collected double pay 23 times.
Officers and administrators offered various explanations, from mistakes on time cards to mistakes by clerks entering the payroll orders.
Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O’Toole acknowledged that the large number of instances of double payment could indicate widespread abuse of the detail pay system.
She said she was shocked by the apparent widespread manipulation of the system, and pledged an immediate review of department records. An internal committee has been instructed to examine payroll records and investigate officers, and has asked City Hall auditors to reconfigure the computer payroll system to flag overlapping shifts.
“We will aggressively discipline anybody who is found to have violated the laws and regulations of this department,” O’Toole said. “There’s nothing more important than integrity.”
O’Toole said she’s hired the auditing firm of Ernst & Young to recommend reforms for the department’s detail management system.
Seven officers are now under investigation for double dipping. One is Detective George P. Foley, who was paid a total of $656 dollars after submitting time cards indicating that he worked at the Bayside Exposition Center from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and a Big Dig detail the same day from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. He did not respond to requests from the Globe for comment.
Patrolman Joseph F. Scannell had the most number of incidents of filing for overlapping shifts: 23 times, involving a total of 44 shifts. In one instance, on June 8, 2002, he was paid for working three details at the same time. He told the Globe that the pay was the result of clerical errors.