Deputy Admits He Doesn't Log Fuel Purchases - February 19, 2022
- 6 months ago
On the night of February 19th, 2022, a Caldwell Parish Sheriff's Office reserve (unpaid, volunteer) deputy needed to refuel his patrol car. He had a fuel card, but didn't have any log sheets to log down the fuel purchase. Because he has integrity, he didn't want to gas up and not properly log it.
He asked a patrol deputy if that deputy had any fuel logs, and that deputy stated he didn't use them. Meaning that deputy doesn't keep proper records of when he refuels his cruiser. As this fuel is paid for by public funds from the sheriff's department budget, itself paid for by taxpayers, public employees are expected - if not required by law - to maintain records of their use of those public funds.
This is relevant now because on October 6th 2023, a dispatcher sent a deputy to a local gas station because another dispatcher was needing to use the deputy's fuel card. The dispatcher doesn't have a department car that she takes home, and wasn't out of gas on the side of the road, so the implication is that they used the department gas card to refuel the dispatcher's personal car - an unlawful use of public funds and a violation of state law.
This recording, and the information in the preceding paragraph, makes me wonder: if he doesn't log his fuel purchases, what's to say he's not using excessive amounts of fuel (like if he were unlawfully using the police car for personal business on his days off - which we know the sheriff allows) or even filling up his personal vehicles on the department card?
It's worth mentioning that a couple years ago, this department made headlines for an over half-million dollar embezzlement scandal. One deputy was arrested and charged with stealing $176,000, but there's still over $400,000 still unaccounted for. Maybe a lot of that money went into fuel tanks?
Back to the reserve deputy: because he has integrity, and because nobody else on shift had a spare fuel log, he waited until he could get a log sheet (a couple days later) to fuel up. Because of that, I commend him for doing the right thing.
He asked a patrol deputy if that deputy had any fuel logs, and that deputy stated he didn't use them. Meaning that deputy doesn't keep proper records of when he refuels his cruiser. As this fuel is paid for by public funds from the sheriff's department budget, itself paid for by taxpayers, public employees are expected - if not required by law - to maintain records of their use of those public funds.
This is relevant now because on October 6th 2023, a dispatcher sent a deputy to a local gas station because another dispatcher was needing to use the deputy's fuel card. The dispatcher doesn't have a department car that she takes home, and wasn't out of gas on the side of the road, so the implication is that they used the department gas card to refuel the dispatcher's personal car - an unlawful use of public funds and a violation of state law.
This recording, and the information in the preceding paragraph, makes me wonder: if he doesn't log his fuel purchases, what's to say he's not using excessive amounts of fuel (like if he were unlawfully using the police car for personal business on his days off - which we know the sheriff allows) or even filling up his personal vehicles on the department card?
It's worth mentioning that a couple years ago, this department made headlines for an over half-million dollar embezzlement scandal. One deputy was arrested and charged with stealing $176,000, but there's still over $400,000 still unaccounted for. Maybe a lot of that money went into fuel tanks?
Back to the reserve deputy: because he has integrity, and because nobody else on shift had a spare fuel log, he waited until he could get a log sheet (a couple days later) to fuel up. Because of that, I commend him for doing the right thing.