DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Eleven police officers for two suburban Atlanta agencies received thousands of dollars in unemployment payments related to part-time security jobs, even though they were still full-time officers, an investigation finds.
WSB-TV reports the officers for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and Douglasville Police Department won’t face criminal charges, but those who spent the windfall are being required to repay the money.
The state Department of Labor says the officers started getting unemployment payments because businesses listed them as unemployed when the businesses closed temporarily. But Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, an elected Republican, says both the employer and the worker are responsible for providing accurate estimates of other income as part of jobless claims. In this case, accurate estimates would have made the officers ineligible for unemployment payments because their total income remained too high.
“It is critical we receive accurate earned weekly wages for all employees to avoid a potential overpayment situation,” Butler said.
Documents and videorecorded interviews obtained through an open records request by WSB-TV show six Douglas County deputies with part-time jobs at the Dillard’s department store in Douglasville and a Carrolton gym received between $12,000 and $17,000 after the businesses closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in March.
According to emails, five Douglasville police officers who worked at Dillard’s also collected unemployment benefits. But only one spent the money.
Only one of the deputies who received unemployment benefits did not spend the money. When Sgt. Traci Sullivan of the sheriff’s office received the money, she called a friend of a friend who works for the state.
“She said ‘Yeah I see that you’ve got a card and there’s money on it’ and I said ‘Well, I have a full-time job,’” Sullivan said in a interview recorded during the sheriff’s office investigation.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office found the five deputies who spent the money violated policy for conduct unbecoming an officer.
“You’re getting paid by the government two times, that’s double-dipping,” said retired law enforcement investigator Randy Rider.
Douglasville Police did not investigate and took no disciplinary action.
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