The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that 47 year old Paul Helring has been charged with theft concerning programs receiving federal funds. It's alleged that Helring, a former Scranton police officer and the former elected police union president, while serving as the coordinator of Scranton Police Department’s extra duty overtime program, knowingly obtained by fraud over $5,000.00 in compensation paid to him for extra duty patrol shifts at several local, lower-income housing complexes that Helring claimed to, but did not in fact work. In a plea deal, he will pay restitution.