[BITList] oh, what a lovely scam!

[x50type at cox.net]

have your police thought of this yet?
new orleans police commander starts own company to review traffic camera photos and bills the city $10,000/2 weeks – $240,000 per year!
but new chief of police Superintendent Ronald Serpas doesn’t notice nor does he notice his body guard and son-in-law are in on the act!
here we go again...............................
ct


For New Orleans Police Department, the devil's in the details: James Gill
Published: Sunday, May 08, 2011, 8:03 AM 
By James Gill 

Those disgruntled motorists who complained that the only point of traffic cameras was to make money for the city must now admit they were wrong.
The cameras were also a godsend for cops in tight with Superintendent Ronal Serpas. They managed to intercept much of the cash and stuff it into their own pockets.

A yellow light at the intersection of Claiborne and Earhart avenues. CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
Confidence in Serpas' ability to straighten out a corrupt department just took a major dive. Mayor Mitch Landrieu had to step in to put the quietus on the scam and suspend Serpas' good buddy Commander Edwin Hosli along with Public Works Director Robert Mendoza. Serpas was absent from the press conference at which Landrieu announced the suspensions Thursday, and no wonder.

The camera job, masterminded by Hosli, enabled cops to make money on the side for work that was clearly in the ambit of official duty. It paid pretty well; Hosli billed up to $10,000 every two weeks for himself and the cops he hired to review pictures snapped by the traffic cameras.

The rules require that those photographs be reviewed by a police officer before a fine can be levied, and arranging that cannot be much of a challenge. Serpas certainly knows where to find a cop when he needs one, and could have ordered that the photographs be reviewed in-house as soon as he took office. Instead, Hosli and pals contrived to get paid for the chore, via a city contractor, by styling it a detail.

Dodges don't come more transparent than that. Off-duty cops getting paid by a private company to patrol, say, a supermarket, are working a detail. Off-duty cops getting paid from the public purse for routine law enforcement are working a scam.

It seemed that Serpas had finally figured that out for himself when he decreed that henceforth the photographs be handled by cops on the clock, but that turned out not to be spontaneous. At his press conference Landrieu revealed that he gave the order. 

The idea for sham details working under the Public Works Department did not originate with Hosli. Sgt. Cyril Davillier used to provide off-duty officers not just to review traffic pictures but also to man the car pounds, but he got fired last fall for overcharging.

Any hopes that handing the job to Hosli would save money were soon dashed. He and the cops he recruited gobbled up the camera revenues with no less relish than their predecessors.

Forming a company to manage details is forbidden in the NOPD manual, as Hosli obviously knew because, when he did it anyway, he tried to cover it up. Cops spend so much time with shifty characters that it is only natural they should pick up a few tips. Thus Hosli listed "M Austin" as head of Anytime Solutions, the company he formed to hire cops for detail assignments.

However, since Hosli's wife goes by Michelle Austin, this was not, perhaps, the most brilliant deception ever devised.




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