Report: Seattle utility spends millions for off-duty officers from one company
Oct 9, 2017, 10:21 AM
An off-duty officer stands next to a "road closed" sign in Ballard. (File, MyNorthwest)
(File, MyNorthwest)
As the FBI continues its investigation into the allegations of mismanagement of Seattle officers’ off-duty hours, a report by The Seattle Times shows City Light has paid millions for off-duty police work.
RELATED: Off-duty work comes under investigation
According to the Times, Seattle City Light has paid Seattle’s Finest Security & Traffic Control more than $7.8 million over five years. Records obtained by the Times show Seattle’s Finest, owned by a former Seattle officer, has been the only company to get work for off-duty officers since October 2012.
There are two companies that provide off-duty work. Crews can choose which to use; City Light, according to the Times, does not have to put jobs out for bid because of the nature of the work.
A spokesperson for City Light “could not explain” why the utility has only used Seattle’s Finest for years.
The investigating into off-duty work centers around claims by businesses that employees of the two local staffing companies have used strong-arm tactics to secure contracts. There are allegations that the companies overcharge and price-fix.
KIRO Radio’s Mike Lewis previously reported that one officer allegedly described in detail how the police union purposely kept the department’s administrators in the dark about off-duty work and allegedly called some officers a “mini mafia.”
When describing off-duty work for City Light the officer, according to a memo, said, “Yeah, we would really break some bones if those (jobs) were messed with. Those jobs are a minimum of four hours (billed) and most are done in an hour and a half.”
Off-duty work has been a lucrative business. Lewis reports officers can rake in $90 an hour or more for traffic-control work on Sundays.
“It’s three or four (cops) who run off-duty,” one veteran officer previously told Lewis. “They run the show. If they don’t like you, you don’t get the work.”
About a week after confirmation that the FBI is investigating the off-duty work, Seattle Mayor Tim Burgess announced he would end the practice of private companies controlling the moonlighting for officers and asked for a restructuring of how the police department manages hours.
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