Abused OT program designed to boost highway presence

An overtime program milked by state troopers now under investigation was run solely out of the unit patrolling the Massachusetts Turnpike to catch additional traffic violations.

The Accident and Injury Reduction Effort, operating out of Troop E, was designed to boost police presence on the highway, letting troopers sign up for overtime shifts to add patrols, target more problem drivers and make the roads safer.

Instead, an audit of shifts in the AIRE program recorded as worked in 2016 found “discrepancies between overtime the people claimed they worked and other information that shows when they were actually working,” said state police spokesman David Procopio. That prompted officials to end the program in 2017.

Procopio declined to detail how the troopers managed to sign up for the work, not complete the work and still get paid — saying the details were under investigation.

Procopio said the funds came from the state police budget, not a federal grant, and the program was limited to Troop E.

Nineteen active-duty troopers, plus one retired trooper and one trooper currently suspended on an unrelated matter, have been taken off active duty after they were implicated in the overtime allegations. They could be subject to discipline or the loss of their jobs, and possibly criminal charges stemming from a review by Attorney General Maura Healey. The probe has now been expanded to look for potential OT abuse throughout the state police.