Oklahoma City officer earns nearly 10 times more on leave than he’s accused of stealing

Prosecutors charged Oklahoma City police Sgt. Willie Williams with two felonies and a misdemeanor after an investigation indicated he earned $5,738 from falsified time cards.

But Williams has collected $52,246 — and counting — in pay since he was placed on paid administrative leave Aug. 2 when the investigation began, city payroll records show.

Police officers and other city employees often are placed on paid administrative leave when criminal or internal administrative investigations begin, Assistant City Attorney Richard Mahoney said. Sometimes paid leave is used when no wrongdoing is initially suspected, such as the automatic administrative leave that comes when a police officer shoots at someone while on duty.

Mahoney acknowledged it could seem strange that an officer charged with felonies could earn nearly 10 times what he’s accused of stealing while he’s on leave but pointed to a variety of factors that make paid administrative leave a necessary tool when investigating an officer or another city employee.

A combination of court cases, union rules and government policies make administrative leave the best way to protect potentially innocent employees and preserve all means of discipline available to be imposed on guilty ones, he said.

Six are on leave now

At least 33 police officers and other department employees have been placed on paid administrative leave since February 2010, according to city payroll records and police spokesman Capt. Patrick Stewart.

The 33 employees combined to earn nearly $650,000 in about 13 months, the payroll records show. That’s a fraction of the department’s $98.1 million payroll since February 2010.

Six officers, including Williams, are on administrative leave now, Stewart said. Five of them have combined to earn nearly $155,000 since being placed on leave, while one has not yet received a paycheck since he was recently placed on leave, payroll records show.

Former police Capt. David Ellis earned nearly $65,000 while on administrative leave, the most of any police employee in the past 13 months, the payroll records show. A German man suspected of impersonating a police officer and convicted of illegally possessing ammunition had been staying at Ellis’ Purcell residence, according toarchives. Ellis was placed on leave during an investigation into the German man’s activities.

Ellis since has resigned from the police department, Stewart said.

Equipment turned in

Officers placed on administrative leave have to turn in their badge and guns, vehicles and computers issued by police, Stewart said. The conditions of leave vary, but officers typically are required to be available to investigators during the hours for which they’re earning paid leave.

“Essentially, administrative leave is assigning somebody to stay home,” Mahoney said. “As the charges are worked out or as the situation is worked out, the (police) chief may put them on some sort of restricted duty and change their assignments for the time being.”

Officers who are eventually determined not to have broken any laws or police policies could suffer harm that can’t be undone if pay is withheld while they’re under investigation, Mahoney said.