The Associated Press
MUSKEGO, Wis. (AP) - Police Chief John Johnson used high-tech surveillance equipment to check on his own detectives, a newspaper said Wednesday.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the department borrowed a global positioning system tracker from the Milwaukee Police Department in May and placed it in a squad car shared by the department’s two detectives.
The newspaper said police reports released Tuesday at its request showed police supervisors then learned that the pair were driving to a tanning salon, shopping at the Geoffrey Beene Outlet Store in Kenosha County and running personal errands while on duty.
One of the detectives quit and the other was demoted to patrol officer, while their supervisor was reassigned to head a patrol shift, the newspaper said.
It said the investigation began when the chief was reviewing an expense report submitted by one of the detectives last spring.
A receipt showed the detective who was demoted used his credit card to purchase clothing for $85.41 during his shift on April 19 at the Geoffrey Beene Outlet Store in Pleasant Prairie in Kenosha County, the Journal Sentinel said a police report says.
The detective who resigned told the newspaper he had not been doing anything different from supervisors in the department.
“I did a few things that I probably shouldn’t have done, but they never made an issue of it in the past,” he said.
The detective who was demoted was not allowed to comment publicly about the investigation, according to Johnson.