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New Orleans Police Department is demoting a high-ranking female officer who was one of the force’s faces after she was exposed as a fraudster who clocked herself in at work while moonlighting as a paid private security guard.
Sabrina Richardson has been downgraded from captain to lieutenant following the probe after she was caught ‘double-dipping’ on what are known as off-duty details.
Off-duty details allow businesses to pay off-duty cops to complete private security work for them while wearing their police uniforms.
It is perfectly legal – but Richardson was caught doing it at least 26 times while she was also clocked in at the NOPD and being paid by the beleaguered city’s taxpayers.
Fox8 journalists Lee Zurnik and Danah Sauer completed a painstaking investigation which saw them request traffic camera records via the Freedom of Information Act, and uncover Richardson’s silver Chevy driving to off-duty details while she was at work.
Richardson has now been demoted to Lieutenant, one rank lower, as a result of forensic analysis of four years of payroll and off-duty detail records which found 26 instances in which Richardson had effectively double-dipped all in the name of service in the Big Easy.
New Orleans police officer Sabrina Richardson, pictured, has been demoted from captain to lieutenant after an investigation found she was double-dipping on work
Her patrol vehicle was picked up on police cameras on eight occasions over the last six months several miles away from where she was supposed to be posted
Richardson once served as the NOPD’s Public Information Officer conducting interviews at crime scenes and was the face of the force
Timesheets and security detail paperwork appears to show Richardson clocking-in to work at the NOPD while also taking on an off-duty detail shift overlapping at a separate location.
The ‘detail shifts’ see uniformed New Orleans officers performing off-duty uniformed security work within the city.
It allows for officers, who would otherwise be on their day off, to participate in extra security detail work, while still under the badge of the NOPD.
All police officers carry with them full law enforcement powers and are expected to perform police related duties only, but if arrests are made, then an on-duty officer would have to be summoned.
In Richardson’s case, it appears she was taking on such detail shift while clocking-on for legitimate NOPD work.
In one instance, Richardson was working March 20, 2019 from 3-7pm and being paid to work an off-duty detail shift at Restaurant Depot, a wholesale cash and carry foodservice supplier. But at the exact same time, official NOPD records show her on the clock for the city’s police force.
Accompanying the payroll records, Fox 8 was also able to dig up license-plate-camera information on Richardson’s vehicle, although from only the last six months.
Even in that short space of time, the journalists found eight instances in which Richardson had claimed to be working at an off-duty detail, yet the city-wide network of more than 100 cameras found her, police unit several miles away from the assignments.
Richardson was the captain of the Third Police District, which covers Gentilly, Mid-City and Lakeview and has now been demoted to Lieutenant
In several instances, Richardson was found to be several miles away from her NOPD shift
Richardson took on overtime police details working for outside organizations
In April last year, during the NCAA men’s Final Four tournament, Richardson was paid $671 for 11 hours of work at Woldenberg Park. The shift was supposed to be from 11am until 10pm.
Yet just 45 minutes before her shift ended she was photographed in her police car on the West Bank, on the clock, working for the NOPD.
Later that year, on November 27, 2021, Richardson had been working a detail at Champions Square, an outdoor festival space next to the Superdome from 11 to 4pm.
However, at just after 1pm a license plate camera saw her police unit some five miles away in the West Bank Area.
Her patrol vehicle was spotted once again at 2pm on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans East, over six miles away from Champions Square.
Prior to leading the Third District, Richardson had been working in the NOPD Public Integrity Bureau which would normally be responsible for investigating misconduct within the NOPD.
Fox 8 trawled through four years of payroll records to find Richardson’s double-dipping
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Her car was also spotted by citywide traffic cameras while she was supposed to be on duty
Richardson, center, is pictured with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, left who is also in the middle of her own controversy over a city apartment and luxury first class flights abroad
The Bureau had recused themselves from Richardson’s investigation.
The NOPD’s then-head of homicide Nick Gernon looked into Richardson’s discrepancies yet kept despite coming up with 44 instances, Richardson was kept in charge of her district and kept her ranking.
‘This double-dipping issue, I just don’t get. You have a detail and you’re working duty at the same time. This doesn’t make sense. And I think with officers who work a normal 40 hours a week, this just doesn’t happen,’ NOPD watchdog Skip Gallagher said to Fox 8
The NOPD provided the information to the Orleans District Attorney’s Office who will now decided whether any criminal offenses will be brought.
Richardson’s double-dipping is the latest example of corruption to have taken place in New Orleans.. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has said she will repay the city for $30,000 she claimed in city cash for first class flights from Washington Dulles Airport to Switzerland and France for herself in July
Richardson’s double-dipping is the latest example of corruption to have taken place in New Orleans, which was recently named America’s murder capital.
LaToya Cantrell, the controversial Democratic mayor has said she will repay the city for $30,000 she claimed in city cash for first class flights after living rent-free in a government apartment just three miles from her house.
The mayor was forced to pay for the flights after a city attorney was brought in who determined that Cantrell, as a city employee, was obliged by policy to seek the cheapest fares or reimburse the city for deluxe expenses.
Cantrell spent around $10,000 on her own flat bed seat and blew a similar amount on a first-class return to France earlier this year – while her aides traveled in coach.
She raised eyebrows by claiming it was unsafe for black women to fly economy.
The under fire mayor is already in hot water after admitting to living in a city-owned apartment in the city’s French Quarter rent-free, that lies only three miles from her $500,000 Broadmoor home.
Cantrell had previously caused outrage when she spent taxpayer money on first class air travel to France and Switzerland and excused it by saying economy class was ‘unsafe’ for black women, adding she had done nothing illegal.
‘Based on the policy review, however, I will have to reimburse,’ she said of the flights. ‘So I’m moving forward to do that,’ without specifying when she would do so.
At the same time she has admitted staying for free in a city-owned apartment in the city’s Upper Pontalba building on Jackson Square in the famous district. It has a market rate of $2,991 per month
‘Based on the policy review of the CAO, as well as the law department, it is very clear that business was done on behalf of the city of New Orleans, however, I will have to reimburse the city for those business expenses,’ she said.
At first she repeatedly refused to repay the cost of a luxury American Airlines flight from Washington Dulles Airport to Switzerland for herself in July, despite a city ban on luxury air travel.
‘My travel accommodations are a matter of safety, not of luxury,’ Cantrell, who reportedly earns approximately $188K annually, said last Thursday at a press conference.
‘As all women know, our health and safety are often disregarded and we are left to navigate alone.
‘As the mother of a young child whom I live for, I am going to protect myself by any reasonable means in order to ensure I am there to see her grow into the strong woman I am raising her to be.
‘Anyone who wants to question how I protect myself just doesn’t understand the world black women walk in.’
Cantrell spent around $10,000 on her own flat bed seat and blew a similar amount on a first-class return to France earlier this year – while her aides traveled in coach.
But council members did not buy these excuses and had threatened to dock her pay in the 2023 budget to recover the funds.
‘I’m glad that we can put this behind us,’ Council President Helena Moreno said.
‘We have so many bigger issues to deal with. Obviously with public safety. We’ve got the budget coming up and that’s really what we’d like to be focused on.’
Cantrell’s home in New Orleans’ Broadmoor neighborhood, that she shares with her husband Jason, is estimated to be worth upwards of $500K
