I'm sure there are plenty of honest and dedicated cops, but cases like this make them seem like common criminals, stealing every way they can. It's a disgrace and the police involved should be embarrassed, admit they were wrong and apologize, but don't count on it. If you're a Boston cop it's alright to also be a crook.

Between this and traffic detail (so much for the civilian flaggers... ) police officers are routinely the highest paid city and state employees. When examining take home pay, every year, the cops are typically 80% of the top earners in city and state budgets. Despite all the bashing of public employees, police overtime has LONG been a major culprit. Kudos to the Globe. I suspect if you keep digging you're going to find many more irregularities.

Dizmonk, you know why there are no flaggers? They were found to be more expensive than cops. The vast majority of police overtime is patrol. It is far cheaper to pay overtime than to add to the ranks of the department.

It's a feeding frenzy by the police on scarce taxpayers funds! The crooks are the police. This globe investigation only includes one location - What would be the damage if all locations and courts in the State are to be examined? Results of Internal police investigations are not disclosed to the public so we don't if any effective actions areor will ever taken.

All of this occurred from 2008-2010, a period of deep crisis for the economy. And the response by these public workers? Rip off the taxpayer even more. These great stories by the Globe increasingly reveal the fact that the state is being run for the benefit of state workers first, last and always. Taxpayers? They are just suckers to be fleeced. Worse, the stories of the probation department ripoff, other court issues as well as this police abuse are all about elements of players in our JUSTICE system. If the integrity of these employees is continuously suspect what does that say about those in positions of less visibility and professionalism? I suppose we should be grateful that someone, somewhere, in these departments FINALLY gets fed up with this blatant thievery but does anyone imagine there aren't dozens of similar cases of such fraud littered throughout state government? And people have the gall to ask for more taxation and vex continually about the greed in the private sector. Well at least in the private sector there are incentives inside and outside of businesses to uproot bad and/or criminal behavior. All these cops got was a slap on the wrist for STEALING MONEY from taxpayers. Yeah, that should deter other public sector thieves in the future.

Let's see if I got this right. 400 hours of overtime for a two year period. That means 200 hours of overtime for each year. Since there are approximately 2100 police officers in Boston so that means each officer earned 6 minutes in questionable overtime!!! You wrote column about this trivia!!!

Police officers lying????? Nooooooooooooooooo! Employees of the civil service who steal or lie - have given their employers SOLID grounds for 'firing' them: so what is stopping the Boston Police Department from doing the right thing? If they lie about their overtime you can bet they will lie about anything - including their investigations.

Not trivia - the story is about lying police-officers and 400 hours of OVERTIME (overtime at the approximate hourly rate of time & 1/2 could equal $80+ an hour for police officers wasting their shift time and tax-payers money - Nothing trivia about this. It warrants disciplinary action.

The police officers ought to be 'fired' from their employment. Plain & simple. People who tell lies should not be employed as police officers.Get rid of those scoundrels! Let those police officers look for a job where the truth is not required(NO SUCH JOB). Also, there are plenty of men & women looking for employment and they have higher work ethics, better morals and better education and most important - they are not habitually telling lies.

No douibt this is just the tip of the iceberg...Get some private sector forensic auditors in there and watch it start to rain....No wonder I can't get a response when my house alarm goes off, everyone is already in court.

It is only more expensive because of the union rules. EVERY OTHER STATE in the country employs flaggers instead of police officers watching over holes in the the ground. I just completed a road trip down to Georgia and back, passing through many construction zones. In only one or two did I see the flashing lights of a police car. Somehow, some way, other states get by without police officers at every construction sight. Maybe it speaks to how poorly Massachusetts residents are at driving.

If these cops were in the private sector, this would be embezzlement and they would be charged criminally, ordered to pay restitution and fired...aren't we supposed to hold the police to a higher standard?

"...the prosecutor had verbally asked the officer to appear." Oh sure. What would you expect in Massachusetts, the most corrupt state in the country. The question is, are the police more corrupt than the firefighters. The are good arguments to be made on both sides.

Okay I was waiting for this. First off let me address the fact that MANY small /family businesses are FULL of nepotism, favoritism, irregularities and inappropriate largesse. We only have to go to the other end of the business spectrum to remember "TOO Big to fail." In short NO employment practice is immune from corruption, dishonesty and people trying to game the system. Why don't people stick to facts of this particular case before launching into another "all public employees" are lackies nonsense?

Call the mayors office 6176354500 and tell him you want controls in place to guard against fraudulent claims for overtime in the police department.