LOS ANGELES _ Dozens of California Highway Patrol officers are being temporarily relieved of duty amid an investigation into whether they fraudulently received hundreds of hours of overtime pay while working out of the East Los Angeles station, officials said Friday.
The probe found evidence that some officers exaggerated the number of hours they worked in protection details for California Department of Transportation workers doing freeway maintenance. CHP officers can earn lucrative overtime for this type of work. The job typically involves sitting in a cruiser at each end of a construction zone to ensure motorists don't get too close to the workers.
The CHP has begun sharing its findings with the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which will determine whether criminal fraud charges will be filed.
Chief Mark Garrett, who oversees the CHP Southern Division, said a review of overtime processes last March uncovered irregularities, including some officers taking overtime for hours they did not work.
"I am extremely disheartened by the actions of these employees. The CHP takes any misconduct by its employees seriously and does not tolerate any behavior that violates the law or department policy," Garrett said.
CHP officials said "numerous members" of the East Los Angeles station are the subject of the investigation. The station is home base to 99 officers and 10 sergeants.
"I am frankly angered and appalled by the actions of those involved," CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said in a statement Friday. "Let me be clear, the CHP does not tolerate misconduct by any of its employees. The moment CHP management discovered the potential misconduct, we immediately launched an investigation."
Officials examined records from the state's 103 CHP stations and the improper activity appears to be confined to the Southern Division, Stanley said.
Garrett said that once the discrepancies were discovered, the agency immediately initiated an investigation "to further identify any employees who betrayed the trust of the public and their fellow members of the CHP."
So many officers are under scrutiny that CHP is shifting extra staff to the Southern Division, which patrols the Los Angeles area, sources told the Los Angeles Times.
Caltrans crews working on freeways face dangers from motorists who speed past. There have been numerous public outreach efforts and stricter traffic laws aimed at slowing traffic and reducing the numbers of workers injured or killed.
Scores of Caltrans employees have been killed and hundreds have been injured in the line of duty, most of them victims of errant motorists who have plowed into work crews on freeways.
It is unclear whether Caltrans has launched its own investigation into the suspected overtime fraud.
