BOSTON (WHDH) - Four more members of the Massachusetts State Police have been relieved of duty amid an ongoing investigating into overtime abuse, a spokesman said.
In a release issued Monday, the department announced that as part of the department’s ongoing audit of overtime earnings, they have identified discrepancies between overtime pay earned and actual hours worked for four additional department members, according to state police spokesman David Procopio.
As a result of the discrepancies, state police have opened Internal Affairs cases for the four members and referred information related to the alleged discrepancies to state and federal prosecutors.
After relieving the four troopers of duty, state police officials scheduled internal hearings to determine what their duty status will be while internal and external investigations into their overtime shifts are conducted, according to the announcement.
“Today’s actions are the result of our continued review of records and data indicative of whether Department members were present and working overtime shifts for which they were paid,” State Police Col. Kerry A. Gilpin said in a statement. “Our commitment to the public, and to the vast majority of Troopers who conduct themselves with integrity and dedication to duty every day, is to identify anyone who has violated their oath, and we continue to do just that.”
The discrepancies announced today stem from certain traffic enforcement overtime shifts the four were assigned to work when they were members of the former Troop E, which was disbanded earlier this year.
The four additional members announced today bring the number of department members for whom the Department has uncovered varying numbers of suspect overtime shifts – and whose names were referred to the United States Attorney and state Attorney General for criminal investigation – to 46.
The names of the members have not yet been made public.
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