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Thirty Houston police officers were suspended without pay or given written reprimands for working at part-time security jobs while the department believed they were still on duty. Houston’s Internal Affairs Division began an investigations back in May of 2007 into allegations that some officers were still supposed to be working their scheduled shifts when they were working jobs as private security guards.
Among those disciplined are three Houston captains, one of whom received a 90-day suspension. The Houston Police Officers’ Union said the punishment amounted to an overreaction to a long-standing practice. Houston officers generally arrive at work 15 to 20 minutes early so they can sign for their cars and pick up any special equipment they might need.
That way, officers are ready respond to an incident as soon as their shift begins. Likewise, they frequently return to the station a few minutes early so they can turn in paperwork and equipment.
Gary Blankinship, the president of the Houston police union, said the focus of the 16-month inquiry was on those officers who use their transition time quickly and left for their outside work while still technically on the city’s payroll.
“The majority of these cases were under 30 minutes,” Blankinship said. Houston P.D. officials said officers are allowed to leave work early only if they have the approval of their supervisor and that officers who received the suspensions or reprimands did not have permission from a higher-up to leave," Craig Ferrell, the Houston P.D.’s general counsel, said:
“Working police-related extra jobs is a privilege, not a right,” according to Mike Glenn, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. “Employees are not free to, if you will, self-adjust their shifts,” Ferrell said. “We’re wanting to make sure that our officers and our time records are above reproach and do not give the appearance of impropriety.”
Punishments ranged from a departmental reprimand to suspensions from one day to three months. Blankinship said the department at first wanted to fire six or seven of the officers. “We ended up getting into a mediation process with the Department and were able to negotiate a fairer outcome,” he said.
Of the 42 officers originally investigated, 12 were cleared after it was found they had committed no infractions. Some of those officers were reprimanded for not having “extra” job applications on file with the department as required. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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