The New Orleans Police Department says it has identified the problem in payroll, which allowed NOPD officers to be paid for security work while also being paid their regular shift pay.
This made a ‘double dipping’ situation for officers, allowing them to be paid for both secondary security jobs and their regular duty shift.
NOPD Communications Director, Gary Scheets says the department has identified a communication gap between the NOPD payroll system and the Office of Police Secondary Employment’s scheduling system.
“After identifying that gap, NOPD is now able to cross-reference information between the ADP Payroll system and separate system used OPSE. Although the NOPD is independent from the OPSE, our agencies are working closely to pinpoint any gaps or human errors,” said Scheets “This will allow the NOPD and OPSE to share information that will eliminate schedule overlapping and will ensure that officers cannot be scheduled for regular duty shifts and OPSE detail shifts at the same time.”
Scheets says approximately 2% of the paid details were worked by commissioned police officers.
In November, twenty-six New Orleans Police officers were suspended from off-duty security work while the department investigates the allegations the officers were using the detail work to pad their paychecks.
Scheets says the New Orleans Police Department’s Public Integrity Bureau continues to investigate the allegations of misconduct surrounding the police secondary employment.
“We take the allegations brought to our attention very seriously,” said NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson. “We are conducting a thorough and in-depth investigation and we will hold ourselves accountable to the high standards we set for ourselves and our community holds us to.”
