The Mass. State Police has a few problems

The Boston Globe has been looking at the State Troopers and has found out a few things: 

Forty-six  troopers are involved in a pay scandal.

Two troopers routinely filed for more than 30 hours a week in overtime and paid details, but, according to the investigators, didn’t work the entire shifts, and sometimes no part of them at all. 

Leaders were repeatedly confronted not only with remarkable amounts of overtime hours but also suspicious sick time claims and sloppy record keeping across the agency.

Scores of troopers continued to routinely rake in more than $100,000 a year just in overtime and paid details.

Audits and disciplinary letters reviewed by the Globe show that at least 67 troopers were suspected of abusing sick leave since 2011, though they received little, if any, punishment beyond an infrequent written warning. One trooper regularly worked a paid detail, then clocked in for his regular shift, then filed for a partial sick day.

State Police audits show that payroll records in about 40 percent of the barracks contained inaccurate or unclear entries or were missing key information, such as when and where troopers worked.retired amid a scandal involving troopers who say they were ordered to falsify a police report to protect a judge’s daughter.

A trooper is charged with embezzlement; he altered traffic citations to make it look like he issued tickets during phony overtime shifts.

The pay of two troopers; one earned $187,340 last year, including about $72,000 in overtime and additional pay. The other earned roughly $181,661, including about $82,000 in overtime and other pay.

The agency’s former head of payroll pleaded guilty in June to stealing $23,900 from the department.

Inspectors found that one Troop F member coupled so many sick days with other time off that he worked just four Fridays during 2014.

A separate 2016 inspection of Troop F uncovered 11 senior officers who failed to clearly document what work they did during significant chunks of overtime.