7/24/2011

Do leaner times lead to more corruption of the police?

There is a widely accepted argument among economists that if you want to eliminate corruption, raise salaries and then punish and fire those caught engaged in corruption. This piece at Fox Business seems related.

. . . . A report released this week by the County of Los Angeles Office of Independent Review makes a strong, albeit anecdotal, argument that complaints against sheriff's deputies have increasingly turned from "minor theft-type allegations" to allegations of more-serious financial crimes, because...well, times are tough and they have bills to pay, too.
Last year, the Los Angeles County Sheriff got hit with a $100 million budget cut. So now deputies can't get the extra pay they came to depend upon, says the report, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
"Four or five years ago, most deputies who wanted to work overtime to earn extra money ...could generally do so quite easily," the report reads.
"While some deputies worked overtime...to earn extra money to save for leaner times," the report says, "other deputies may have adopted a lifestyle beyond that which their regular salary afforded.
"Regrettably, the current financial crisis...may have contributed to the rise in poor decision-making..."
The report cites examples without mentioning names of the accused.
Mirroring the times, two deputies are under federal indictment for alleged mortgage fraud--taking out loans that exceeded the sales prices of homes they flipped. One faces 40 years in prison, the other 105, the report said.
Other cases involved insurance fraud:
One deputy allegedly set his car on fire. "In addition to the three vehicles he owned, the deputy had a home with a substantial mortgage and three credit cards with balances of over $1,000 each," the report noted.
Another staged a burglary. Another ditched his car in Mexico and claimed it was stolen.
Until recently, fallen deputies were more likely to be accused in petty offenses such as shoplifting, said Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the oversight office that produced the report, but financial pressures have led to larger frauds. . . .

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