The overtime scandal in the Durham Police Department is peeling back layers of crud and revealing just how inept and incompetent the management of the department really is. From The Herald-Sun today:
Top-level commanders in the Durham Police Department from Police Chief Jose Lopez on down were aware of excessive overtime payments to a department desk officer but “enabled†the abuse of the city’s payroll system, auditors say.
The leader of the department’s Operations Bureau, Deputy Police Chief Beverly “B.J.†Council, personally signed off on 10 of 12 overtime claims from Officer Alesha Robinson-Taylor, who was overseeing towing and the moonlighting of her fellow officers.
Robinson-Taylor received $62,583 in overtime between Sept. 1, 2008, and Aug. 31, 2009, and also was allowed to record 904 hours of compensatory time.
If another Herald-Sun report is true, then I say good riddance:
And it is looking increasingly likely that the investigation will claim a top-ranking commander in the Police Department. Sources say the leader of its Operations Bureau, Deputy Police Chief Beverly “B.J.” Council, was relieved of her duties Tuesday.
The first experience I ever had with Council was a community meeting a month or so ago about a spate of muggings and at least one shooting in Trinity Park. I was appalled that the Police Department reps were putting all responsibility on law-abiding citizens instead of telling us what they were going to DO about the problem. We were told to not go out after dark, always walk in groups, and stay home as much as possible.
That was bad enough. But when it came Council’s time to speak, she lectured us all about the root causes that create muggers and shooters, and said we had to be understanding of the circumstances these thugs grew up in. I left that meeting fully convinced that she should not be a police officer, much less in charge of other police officers.
So now the question is: What are our city fathers going to do about all the other incompetent Police Department managers who have admitted to knowingly and willingly allowing this outrageous overtime fraud to go through? Will they do the traditional Durham hemming and hawing by setting up a blue-ribbon panel to give them cover, or will our city council members, our mayor and city manager show some backbone for once?
I can’t wait to see.
FUNNY UPDATE: Maybe it’s time to get some new stationery. The audit of the Durham Police Department that found all the unsavory things regarding the overtime scam is printed on City of Durham stationery with this printed at the bottom of every page: “Good Things are Happening in Durham”.