Now the Enviromental Police are abusing the tax payers
The Massachusetts State Police isn’t the only state law enforcement agency mired in a payroll morass.
Members of the Massachusetts Environmental Police regularly take overtime assignments and off-duty details in the middle of the workday, scheduling their normal state work around more profitable side gigs, according to payroll records.
Agency officials and Governor Charlie Baker vowed to crack down on the practice following media reports two years ago, but the routine continues today.
Despite earlier warnings, environmental officers also continue to stay on the clock while traveling between regular and extra shifts, records show. They also use paid time off to stretch their schedules and ensure overtime payouts, according to timesheet data.
“It’s a situation that’s ripe for corruption,” said Thomas Nolan, a criminology researcher and former Boston Police lieutenant.Members of the Massachusetts Environmental Police regularly take overtime assignments and off-duty details in the middle of the workday, scheduling their normal state work around more profitable side gigs, according to payroll records.
Agency officials and Governor Charlie Baker vowed to crack down on the practice following media reports two years ago, but the routine continues today.
Despite earlier warnings, environmental officers also continue to stay on the clock while traveling between regular and extra shifts, records show. They also use paid time off to stretch their schedules and ensure overtime payouts, according to timesheet data.
Still, the ongoing situation at Environment Police has not risen to the same level as the alleged criminal overtime fraud at State Police, which erupted into a major scandal this year. Two troopers have pleaded guilty to federal embezzlement charges, four others are being prosecuted, and dozens more are under investigation.
The low-profile Environmental Police, which employs 83 officers on a $11 million annual budget, enforces fishing, hunting, boating, and recreational vehicle laws. It is led by Colonel James McGinn, a former State Police sergeant who served as Baker’s personal campaign driver before Baker appointed him to the agency’s helm in 2014.
Officials from the state’s executive environmental office told the Globe scheduling flexibility allows officers to do critical work.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 3:34 PM
15 Comments
15 Comments:
When is this going to stop? And why do so many people associated with law enforcment seem to think they are entitled?
you won't hear a peep from any candidate about any of this. I'm waiting to hear about the MBTA Police next. The Globe is on a roll.. thankfully.
Do state reps have any say over this type of behavior? Doesn't this fall under the Governor's responsibility, or the responsibility of the people who puts in positions of authority over state organizations? Whoever is responsible,they have some explaining to do. I would be interested to here the names of 5 state organizations that have not had any issues with misconduct or failure in the last 4 years while Gov. Baker has been in office. With so many corrupt state employees, one has to wonder why they thought they could get away with it. What kind of example are the ones at the top setting?
The question is not why did they THINK they would get away with it. The correct question we all should be asking is why HAVE they gotten away with it. Why have so many state employees gotten away with illegal behavior while being paid by the taxpayors dime?
Anon.. The Governor is in charge of everything, if he wants to be, although during an election year he's silent in fear of losing votes from unions along with the rest of Beacon Hill. The House and Senate can also initiate an investigation. At any time, any one of them can request the AG or an independent investigator to look into any agency. Recently Gov Baker and State Police Chief Gilpin, hired a former State Police person to investigate the State Police OT abuses. None of this would have ever happened unless the media brought this to our collective attention.
I'm not sure I could name 5 that don't have issues. I thought the one last month was to odd to believe, the MBTA employee who was stealing change from the money boxes and the State Police Dispatcher who has finally resigned over her omitting the fact that she was involved with a major marijuana dealer, when she applied for the job.
According to the Globe today, the House appropriated 300,000 dollars to hire an independent auditing unit, called the Internal Special Audit Unit that will not fall under the State Police purview. The newly passed statute grants full access to the records at the State Police, who must cooperate. The unit will monitor the "quality, efficiency and integrity of the departments operations, organizational structure and management function and seek to prevent, detect and correct fraud, waste and abuse if public funds"
All well and good... after the fact and after warning signs that the top brass at the State Police ignored for years. A whole department needs to be created to insure that state cops are not fleecing the tax payers.
From MassAlert
Former Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousin's administration lacked adequate financial controls to prevent theft and loss, putting taxpayers at risk of losing millions of dollars, according to a newly released audit.
A report by State Auditor Suzanne Bump's office released Monday uncovered "numerous deficiencies in operations" including a lack of documentation for procurement's by the sheriff's office of more than $1 million between July 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2016, when Cousins left the post.
"As a result, the commonwealth cannot be certain that these procurement's were conducted openly and fairly or that (the Essex County Sheriff Department) obtained these goods and services at the best possible value," the audit stated.
The report found the office under Cousins failed to conduct regular inventories of assets and implement a risk assessment plan to prevent theft and loss.
Who will be on this independent unit? Who makes those choices? The same people who promoted the state police staff that allowed all this crap to happen?
Everyone in the media is watching as what will happen. The Globe reports "the person they will hire is a legal professional with at least 10 years experience as a prosecutor and at least 3 years managing. The candidate should have extensive knowledge of and experience with law reinforcement".
It's the job for the Inspector General to monitor and investigate all agencies, but I guess there's just to much work for that office to keep up with.
Being the Inspector General sucks with all these issues, but if all these issues came up while the current Inspector General was being paid to monitor and investigate all agencies,sounds like they have not been doing their job for quite a while if you ask me. Not that anyone has asked me of course.
Like I wrote earlier this week Gov Baker has chosen to ignore the problem and endorse the practice of split shift OT. A vote for Baker is to maintain the fleecing of Mass Taxpayers.
From the Globe:
By Matt Rocheleau Globe Staff August 28, 2018
Governor Charlie Baker said Tuesday he wants the Massachusetts Environmental Police to turn on GPS tracking inside officers’ vehicles, after a Boston Globe report outlined questionable payroll practices at the agency.
But the governor also threw his support behind the agency, which is led by Colonel James McGinn, a former State Police sergeant who served as Baker’s personal campaign driver before Baker appointed him to head the agency in 2014.
Baker defended one controversial pay practice at the Environmental Police and said that, by comparison, the alleged overtime theft by dozens of State Police troopers was “a far more serious issue.”
The Globe reported this week that Environmental Police officers can take overtime assignments and off-duty details in the middle of the workday, scheduling their normal state work around more profitable side gigs.
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The agency has let the practice continue regularly despite vowing to curb it after concerns were raised, including by Baker, in the fall of 2016.
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Another state agency battling payroll inconsistencies
The Massachusetts Environmental Police has quietly allowed officers to prioritize overtime and private work over their daily public service duties.
Experts said the practice is unheard of within law enforcement and could lead to a host of problems, including potential abuse.
But Baker on Tuesday said he believes the policy “makes sense.”
“There are many circumstances and situations where the split shift is appropriate — things like LNG [liquefied natural gas] tankers coming into the harbor and a whole bunch of other time-bound activities in which their presence is required,” Baker told reporters Tuesday.
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Can these environmental police do anything about the General Chemical mess here in Framingham? Do they have any authority at all to act against a company that refuses to clean up the mess they created? And what is our new city form of government going to do about this?
No the Envro guys only do wildlife stuff. General Chemical will end up in court. And it's mu guess our city will be on the hook for some of the cleanup.
Did you see Baker say that he thought this was acceptable behavior? If he thinks this is ok no wonder there are so many issues in so many different divisions/department of state government. The Governor thinks double dipping is ok!
I hear you loud and clear.. It's amazing how little he seems to care about what the public thinks about this. I'll be in the debates.. this will come up. But then what.. will the Dem's have any reasonable answer? Probably not is my guess.. they like Charlie, don't want to piss off such a large voting block.
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