High overtime cop may have cheated city on time worked Tuesday, February 17, 2009 By Kathleen Moore (Contact) Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY — The police officer who nearly tripled his pay through overtime work last year has been in an apartment instead of working for part of his shifts each week, an investigation by The Daily Gazette determined.
Quick, someone pass the popcorn, this is going to get interesting VERY quickly.
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parked outside the location around 4 a.m. on five consecutive Tuesdays... spending hours in an apartment at the corner of Queen Philomena Boulevard and Sir Benjamin Way ... Johnson, who lives in a Central Park-area home with his wife and children ...
Wow, nothing fishy going on their, eh Mrs Johnson?
"Mayor Brian U Stratton who could NOT be reached for comment Tuesday also has said the overtime was NECESSARY when staff are on suspension or the department finds itself undermanned." TU-2/18/09.
Was he hiding under his desk? Or in his taxpayer funded Jeep? Democratic "leadership" in inaction.
SCHENECTADY Chief: Cop ‘stealing time’Johnson, tops in pay, out of car during shift BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The police officer who nearly tripled his pay through overtime work last year has been in an apartment instead of working for part of his shifts each week, an investigation by The Daily Gazette determined. Dwayne Johnson, who was the city’s highest paid officer last year with earnings of $168,921, spends most Tuesday early mornings in an apartment at the corner of Queen Philomena Boulevard and Sir Benjamin Way, near Kings Road. Although Johnson is typically scheduled to patrol the city until 8 a.m., he parks his marked police car on Sir Benjamin Way just before 4 a.m. and remains indoors for several hours. The 18-year veteran of the department was observed by a Daily Gazette reporter and other witnesses as he entered and stayed in the apartment on five Tuesdays in a row this year. The Daily Gazette a week ago reported the matter to the Police Department, which confirmed Johnson’s absence from patrols through the city’s new GPS units. Chief Mark Chaires said Johnson’s Tuesday absences from duty have been recorded by the new units nearly every week since they were installed in November. Chaires was disgusted to learn of yet another case of an officer not working during his shift. “Here we go again,” Chaires said. “How dumb can you be? You know you have a GPS in your car. Why would anybody do that?” The department is investigating Johnson and plans to ask him why he leaves his job on Tuesdays and what he’s doing during that time. “I’d like to know what is so interesting for three hours on Tuesdays, though we’re not necessarily going to believe what he tells us,” Chaires said. He declined to state whether that is Johnson’s home address. He added that no excuse will get Johnson out of trouble. “With a city with our crime problems and our issues, there’s no reason to spend your evening socializing or whatever,” Chaires said. “If you’re not on a call, you need to be out there looking for something or at least just showing the car as a deterrence. We’re not paying you to park it.” Johnson could not be reached for comment. The GPS units, which cost $22,000, were installed in every car shortly after another patrol offi cer, Thomas Disbrow, was caught bowling with his son every Saturday during his work shift. Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said then that the new units would keep such embarrassing incidents from happening again, since supervisors now know exactly where their officers are at all times. But no one noticed that Johnson parked his car for three hours or more each Tuesday until it was pointed out by The Gazette. Now supervisors will be required to run printed reports each day and check them to make sure their officers were working, Chaires said. CHIEF ANGRY “Beginning today we’ll do that,” Chaires said on Tuesday. “You hate to treat people like 5-year-olds but basically we’re going to have to do this. It’s a minority of a few that act like 5-year-olds and ruin it so we have to treat them all like that.” It’s not clear what Johnson does in the apartment on Tuesdays, but the officer logged 75 hours every week last year and had logged 70 hours a week so far this year, according to payroll records. Other officers who worked similar schedules in previous years say it’s not possible to get through the work week without napping during slow periods. Chaires seemed to think it likely that Johnson was sleeping. Asked about possible punishments for the officer, he explained that sleeping is viewed as a serious infraction. “When you’re caught sleeping, we consider that stealing time,” Chaires said. “If you’re going to steal time, we’re going to take it back. It’s a significant sanction.” Officers are supposed to refuse overtime when they are too tired to work. But Johnson has been leaving his beat during his scheduled overnight shift, possibly exhausted after days of working the morning or afternoon shift on overtime. City officials, including the mayor and Chaires, have raised a series of concerns about offi - cers who work extreme overtime. They are particularly concerned about patrol officers like Johnson, who are asked to drive for hours past their normal shift and then must make split-second decisions in tense situations. Mayor Brian U. Stratton has repeatedly said that overworked officers are a danger to themselves and others, although command staffers insist they evaluate officers on long shifts and send them home when they can’t function well. Chaires said he was pleased by one facet of the Johnson incident: Unlike previous scenarios, the GPS devices provide three months’ of evidence to support a disciplinary case. Internal Affairs Lt. Stephen LaVare said evidence will make the crucial difference between a gentle reprimand and a serious punishment. “If I’ve got one instance, I’ve got a slap on the wrist,” he said. He asked The Daily Gazette to hold the story for a week so he could catch Johnson in the act. He set up a sting, planning to watch Johnson and then knock on his door just before his shift ended this morning. But for the first time in at least six weeks, Johnson did not stop working during his shift, raising questions about whether he was warned of the sting. LaVare had expressed serious concerns about that possibility. Chaires acknowledged those concerns but emphasized the positive: At least the GPS units provided evidence from the past three months. “It did work, in that there is ..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00101
parked outside the location around 4 a.m. on five consecutive Tuesdays... spending hours in an apartment at the corner of Queen Philomena Boulevard and Sir Benjamin Way ... Johnson, who lives in a Central Park-area home with his wife and children ...
Geeezzzzeeee......wouldn't want to be him right now. He could not only be facing disciplinary action but possible alimony and child support!!! YIKES!!! (just an observation here)
Thanks gazette for finally printing some REAL investigative reporting. Hope they follow through with this story! IMHO
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Tarnishing the badge A decade of trouble for Schenectady police
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published in print: Thursday, February 19, 2009
SCHENECTADY — Two mayors, three police chiefs and two public safety commissioners have all tried to tame the troubled Schenectady Police Department over the past decade.
But regardless of who is in charge, there always seems to be one lowly common denominator: Schenectady cops being arrested, suspended and forced to resign.
It's those chronic symptoms that prompted Mayor Brian U. Stratton to hire former State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett as his Public Safety Commissioner and later Police Chief Mark Chaires to burnish the department's image.
Both expressed dismay Wednesday over allegations Officer Dwayne Johnson – who last year took home nearly $170,000 by racking up a prodigious number of overtime hours – may have shirked his duties by spending several hours on consecutive Tuesday mornings inside a Woodlawn apartment when he should have been on patrol. "He was high-profile as the high wage-earner, and now he's high-profile because he's apparently ripping us off," said Stratton.
City Councilman Gary McCarthy said he is just fed up with bad news about officers' behavior.
"I'd like to go one week where we don't have a negative newspaper article about the department," said McCarthy, chairman of the panel's public safety committee. "It's just baffling that it just keeps happening. It's human nature that people are going to make mistakes, but this just seems so institutionalized." He faults what he described as poor management for the seemingly endless litany of problems that have rocked the 166-member department over the years. Fellow city councilman Joseph Allen blames the powerful police union.
"These guys, because they are a part of the union, think they can do anything,'' he said. Police Benevolent Association President Lt. Robert Hamilton did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment.
While Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney refused to speculate on what criminal charges his office might pursue, Commissioner Bennett said disciplinary action could range from a written discipline to termination.
But the allegations against Johnson pale in comparison to charges other Schenectady officers have faced since 1999.
Four cops – Lt. Michael F. Hamilton Jr. and officers Nicola Messere, Michael Siler and Richard Barnett – served prison time earlier this decade on federal corruption convictions. Another officer, Kenneth Hill, went to state prison for giving a gun to a drug dealer. Investigator Jeffrey Curtis is serving a prison sentence for stealing cocaine from the vice squad. Another vice squad investigator, Chris Maher, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was demoted to the road patrol in connection with allegations he told a friend about an ongoing State Police investigation of gambling........http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=771640
SCHENECTADY Cop case probed for collusion Chief wants to know why supervisors didn’t notice AWOL officer’s absences BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Police Chief Mark Chaires is investigating his department’s supervisors to determine whether they conspired to protect officers who go AWOL during their shifts. The investigation began after The Daily Gazette notified the police that one officer was spending three or more hours in an apartment when he was supposed to be on patrol. Police used a GPS unit to determine that officer Dwayne Johnson, an eight-year veteran of the department, skipped about 30 hours of work over the past three months. The question now is why no one noticed his absence. “How can a police officer who’s supposed to be on duty fall off the face of the earth and nobody knows about it?” said Mayor Brian U. Stratton. “Where are the supervisors?” Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said the department is investigating the sergeants and lieutenants who were on duty during Johnson’s absences. He added that he doesn’t see how Johnson got away with leaving work for hours every week without the collusion of his supervisors. “I simply don’t know at this point … but I think it almost suggests there is a conspiracy here and I think that should go to the district attorney for review,” Bennett said. If supervisors did not conspire to let Johnson leave work early, they may not be off the hook. The other option is that supervisors simply didn’t do their job. “That’s not acceptable either,” Bennett said. Meanwhile, Bennett must also decide how to discipline Johnson. Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said Johnson will likely be required to pay the city back for the 30 hours he spent in an apartment while he was supposed to be patrolling the city. That will cost Johnson less than $1,000 — which might be viewed as a relatively insignificant amount for the officer who nearly tripled his salary by working overtime last year. Bennett said Johnson may not just get a fine. The officer also could be charged with filing a false instrument for signing an inaccurate pay card. “There could be a lot of charges on the administrative end,” Bennett said. The mayor wants stiff penalties, too. “I wouldn’t rule out charges, in- cluding criminal charges,” Stratton said on Wednesday. “It is, after all, a theft of time. We need to look at this in the most serious light.” The reaction has been far more severe than it was last summer when The Daily Gazette reported that officer Thomas Disbrow spent time in a bowling alley in Scotia when he was supposed to be working. Disbrow paid the city back for the hours he spent at the bowling alley. The city also installed GPS units in the patrol cars after that incident but said the change had nothing to do with Disbrow’s actions. No changes were made to supervisory policies. This time, Chief Chaires instituted two policies. On Tuesday he told supervisors they must print out the GPS reports each day to verify their officers’ whereabouts during their shifts. On Wednesday, he said supervisors on the overnight shift must check in with every officer every 15 minutes. That policy had been in place years ago, Bennett said; he did not know when or why it was discontinued. Dispatchers have also been told to watch the GPS screen, which shows the real-time location of each car. If they see any car stationary for more than 15 minutes, they must notify the sergeant on duty. Stratton said the department is taking the incident more seriously this time because officials thought they had solved the problem by installing GPS units. “It’s probably more embarrassing because, after the bowling, we went ahead and bought the GPS,” Stratton said. “And now it turns out the technology is not even being used.” Bennett said the incident is also considered more serious because Johnson was not just any offi cer. He made more money last year than any other city employee, working double shifts nearly every day. He made $168,921 by working an average of 75 hours a week last year. So far this year he has averaged 70 hours per week, according to payroll records. The apartment he has been visiting is not his family’s home. He lives with his wife and four daughters in the neighborhood of Central Park. Apparently installing GPS units did not have any deterrent effect — Johnson started visiting an...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00100
“Catch Me If You Can,” was the title of a 2002 movie based on the true story of a con artist who for a long time managed to stay one step ahead of the cops. In Schenectady, sadly, it could apply to the cops themselves, who seem to think they can make their own rules and do what they want with impunity, or close to it. And they’re mostly right. For they know that their brethren won’t try too hard to catch them, or will cover up for them; and even if they are caught, the consequences won’t be very severe. Thus we have Exhibit 50 or so in recent years: the case of Dwayne Johnson, the cop who was off duty even when he was on. Thanks to some detective work by Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore, residents of Schenectady now know that for at least the first five weeks of this year, Johnson spent several hours each Tuesday morning inside a private residence, with his marked patrol car outside. And despite $22,000 GPS units installed in each patrol car in November to keep better track of officers and prevent this very type of thing from happening, nobody noticed or, if they did, cared — not the dispatchers, who sit next to a board showing the location of each car on a shift; not the sergeant and lieutenant, who are also close by and responsible for the patrolmen. In the extremely unlikely event that they didn’t know, these people were incompetent and should be demoted; if they knew and were all covering up for Johnson, that’s more like a criminal conspiracy and they should be prosecuted. And what about Johnson? Fire him. Isn’t that what would happen to nearly any other employee in similar circumstances? He wasn’t doing his job, the one he is sworn and paid to do. If he signed time sheets saying he worked those hours, he was knowingly filing false instruments. He deserves to be fired, and anybody but a union officer or lawyer, or perhaps arbitrator, would agree. The only reason for not doing so is the inevitable grievance or lawsuit by the union, which — state labor law being so protective of public safety officers — the city might lose. But that didn’t ..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00901
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer Last updated: 5:43 p.m., Thursday, February 19, 2009
SCHENECTADY Embattled police Officer Dwayne Johnson, who was allegedly spending some early mornings at the end of his shift inside an apartment when he should have been on patrol, has been placed on unpaid leave.
The city Police Department this afternoon released a two-line statement saying Johnson, 49, who earned the most money in the department's history last year, has been placed on unpaid leave for 30 days. The department has launched an internal probe and also is looking into whether Johnson's supervisors were aware that he allegedly was not working. Johnson, who...............http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=771816
His 13 days cost Schenectady plenty Schenectady paid police lieutenant $129,908 while he worked most days for union
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published in print: Monday, February 23, 2009 SCHENECTADY Thirteen days.
That's the number of days police union President Lt. Robert Hamilton worked for the city in 2008 when he grossed $129,908 with overtime and retroactive pay, according to city financial records obtained by the Times Union under a Freedom of Information request.
Hamilton spent most of the rest of his time on union business, according to department attendance sheets. Police officials have previously said an officer at the top of the pay scale earned, on average, about $10,000 in back pay resulting from last year's contract settlement, which is included in Hamilton's gross earnings.
And attendance sheets show that many of the days the veteran police commander showed up at headquarters last year were holidays, boosting his salary even more. Officers earn regular pay plus time and a half for working holidays, according to Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett.
Hamilton joined the department in August 1991 and has served as union president for just over five years. He did not return calls last week to his cellphone seeking comment. Mayor Brian U. Stratton described the Hamilton's work pattern and the union process that allows it as "crazy."
"We would be better off financially if Mr. Hamilton didn't even show up for work; that way, we would only have to pay him his base salary," he said. "It's the days that he does show up for work that are costing us an inordinate amount of money since it appears he is only serving our city when it makes financial sense to do so, and that is not what police officers are supposed to do."
The commissioner said the long-standing practice by Hamilton and some prior union presidents of working as infrequently as possible is a troubling one that can only be resolved at the bargaining table. He noted that the 166-member force ''doesn't have an overwhelming number of grievances and complaints against personnel" that would require Hamilton to be out as much as he is on union business. Bennett said the contract does not require Hamilton to give the city details of what is doing on days he takes off on union leave. Bennett noted the department is forced to find a replacement and pay that commander overtime when Hamilton is out on union business.
Bennett said the matter is a morale-killer for officers who regularly show up to work and earn considerably less. The retired State Police superintendent noted that............http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=772869
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"Mayor Brian U Stratton who could NOT be reached for comment Tuesday also has said the overtime was NECESSARY when staff are on suspension or the department finds itself undermanned." TU-2/18/09.
