Police falsified reports to show more traffic tickets

Two Colorado Springs motorcycle officers falsified the number of traffic tickets they issued, apparently in a bid to take credit for work they didn't do, police said Tuesday.

In a practice that went undiscovered for two months, officers Elvin Hill and Dan Myers sometimes duplicated each other's traffic stops on internal log sheets they presented to supervisors, according to the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office, which reviewed an internal investigation conducted by the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Asked if officers in the 24-member motorcycle unit must meet quotas for the number of tickets they issue, police spokesman Lt. David Whitlock said no such order exists in the General Orders that govern Colorado Springs police.

But he added that he could not rule out the possibility of a "minimum performance standard."

The officers' purpose was to exaggerate the number of tickets they wrote, Whitlock said. An internal review found that the two officers acted alone, he said.

"The tickets they actually issued were valid and legal," he said.

Officer Alan Roman, president of the Police Protective Association, declined to comment.

Hill and Myers retired July 2, according to Sue Skiffington-Blumberg, a spokeswoman for the City Attorney's Office. Representatives of the city's Human Resources department did not return calls Tuesday afternoon requesting more information about the officers.

Police, who refused to identify the officers, also declined to say whether they were allowed to leave the department with full retirement benefits. Whitlock said state law bars him from discussing those details.

The Gazette sent police an open-records request Tuesday seeking investigative documents into the allegations against Hill and Myers. Under state law, police have three days to respond.

Although Hill and Myers violated departmental policy by lying to their supervisors, they did not break any laws because they didn't make false statements in court documents, and their falsification did not affect the tickets they issued, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Diana May, who was assigned to review the case.

Prosecutors in the District Attorney's Office and the City Attorney's Office are sending notifications to people who have pending cases resulting from tickets issued by Hill and Myers.

May said the letters are being sent "in the spirit of disclosure." The District Attorney's Office stands by the legitimacy of the tickets that were issued, she said.

Between January and February, the officers together claimed to have written approximately 190 tickets, May said. Police were still trying to learn how many were actually given to motorists, she said. The internal investigation was begun after a supervisor noticed a discrepancy in paperwork the officers submitted, police said.

The police news release - titled "Internal Investigation Yields High Level of Accountability" - quoted police Chief Richard Myers as saying that police are "particularly sensitive" to those alleging that police rely on traffic tickets to fill the city's coffers.

"This is why we are providing details about what we discovered, what we did about it, and reaffirming the sense of accountability this community expects and I expect from our police officers," he is quoted as saying.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0366 or lance.benzel@gazette.com