The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) continues to be plagued by abuse of overtime, bilking the department of tens of thousands of dollars.
After the seventh internal investigation in eight years, State Auditor Brian Colon admonished the police department for not addressing overtime abuse.
“Time and time again, leadership at APD and the City of Albuquerque clearly ignored the findings that were presented in those six prior audits and reports,” Colon said to KRQE. “Enough is enough. The City of Albuquerque and APD have got to get it right.”
One of the most egregious cases involved Lieutenant Jim Edison, who was assigned to lead APD’s COVID-19 response team. Edison’s duties were to coordinate testing and contact tracing, gather pandemic-related statistics, and handle emails and phone calls, according to KRQE.
Between April 2020 and April 2021, Edison claimed $132,964 in overtime payments to earn $242,758 for the year, KRQE said. That is more than the police chief's annual salary of $145,018. The investigation showed if Edison was off-duty and forwarded a voicemail or sent an email, he claimed call-out overtime for it. He credited himself for hours of work that should have taken minutes, according to KRQE. For example, on January 22, 2021, Edison, according to the investigation, documented seven minutes of off-duty work and claimed eight hours of overtime.
“I’m embarrassed for the department. It definitely is shameful,” former APD Chief Mike Geier told KRQE after reviewing the Internal Affairs department's documentation. “From what I reviewed, these were almost daily occurrences going on seven days a week, 24/7. I would say that it definitely is the worst [case] I’ve seen. On so many different levels, this is wrong.”
Attorney Tom Grover told KRQE that Edison’s duties were not consistent with the requirements for callout overtime. “That’s totally abusive conduct,” Grover said. “That’s not overtime callout. That’s overtime abuse.”
Grover blamed APD’s leadership for failing to notice Edison’s timesheet. “I’m not convinced nobody noticed,” Grover said. “I think Deputy Chief [Mike] Smathers knew about it. He just didn’t care or was in on it. But nobody had that internal fortitude to step up and say, this is abuse and this needs to stop.”
Edison initially received a two-week suspension but was fired after another audit in October. He appealed his termination to the Albuquerque Personnel Board, which will hear his case in April. Smathers received a one-day suspension for his oversight, KRQE said.
