The State Comptroller’s Office released a report Thursday critical of operations inside the Livingston Police Department.
The report said at least $27,000 is missing from the department and officials, including Police Chief Greg Etheredge, were slow to report the missing money to state officials, as required by law.
The money was kept in safes in various areas of the police department, according to the comptrollers report. At least one of those safes was left open at many times. The combination to that safe was also written on the door frame. At one point, the key to a safe inside the evidence room was lost. After the safe was reopened, the money was found missing.
A police captain and an evidence custodian as well as the police chief had access to the evidence room during the period investigated by the comptroller’s office.
The investigation also reported that a captain and the evidence custodian borrowed cash from the department’s cash holdings. Both admitted borrowing the money and paying it back.
District Attorney Bryant Dunaway said in a statement Thursday morning he wanted to pursue charges against the person or persons who stole the money. He said the conditions of the city’s police department make it impossible to prove who took the money.
In a letter to Livingston Mayor Curtis Hayes and the Livingston Board of Aldermen, Dunaway called the situation “an awful circumstance” that the city must correct immediately. Dunaway called on city officials to hire an outside firm to conduct a full inventory of the department.
He said the police department must create a proper inventory system and evidence control system.
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