An internal investigation by the DeKalb County School District found major problems with how the district pays school resource officers — some of whom have collected tens of thousands of dollars in overtime pay in recent years.
As a result, investigators recommended that one officer be fired for submitting fraudulent time sheets, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News through open records requests.
In a report dated Sept. 22, 2023, internal auditors outlined their efforts to figure out if a group of 10 officers of varying ranks were reporting their work hours accurately and earning the correct pay. The investigation started after managers in the human resources and finance departments raised concerns that overtime was not being correctly calculated or equitably assigned.
Investigators found that on six separate time sheets in June 2022, then-Officer Victor James claimed to have worked more than 24 hours in a single day. They also found several days that had overlapping or duplicate time entries. James told investigators that these issues were “errors and oversights” on his part, according to the report.
James was terminated on March 6, a district spokesperson confirmed. Investigators also recommended that he reimburse the district for 54 hours of work they say that he fraudulently reported in June 2022. The records obtained do not give a dollar amount for those hours.
Nathaniel Middleton, James’ attorney, said the report was “inaccurate” but declined to say more about what is incorrect. He said they have asked the district to hold an administrative hearing.
James’ base pay from July 2022 through June 2023 was $69,576, according to records previously obtained by the AJC, but he received more than $100,000 in overtime pay during that same time frame. He was one of the highest-paid officers in the current and previous school year. He started working as a school resource officer in DeKalb in 2000, state records show.
District auditors flagged evidence of payroll fraud in October 2023. Employee Relations, a division of human resources, launched an investigation into James in December. DeKalb schools acting Chief of Police Larry Wright told investigators that the police force’s internal affairs department did not conduct its own investigation, referencing instead the broader “control failures” found by auditors. Wright recommended against firing James.
“This recommendation might be seen as a more lenient approach compared to termination; however, his status of employment is invaluable to DCSD Public Safety,” Wright wrote in an email.
The district is still deciding whether to pursue criminal charges, a spokesperson said.
State Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, said he was “appalled” by the district’s findings — and wondered if the issue could be more widespread.
“I believe this should be turned over to law enforcement for a criminal investigation,” he told the AJC and Channel 2. Jones is hopeful that entities outside the school system will be brought in to “look at whether there’s any potential criminality in these acts, and whether or not there are any other individuals in the system who are taking advantage of this situation.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
A larger problem
School resource officers carry weapons, respond to emergencies on campus and provide safety for campus activities. The AJC recently reported that DeKalb has paid officers more than $1 million outside their base salaries for extra work in the current and previous school years.
Though only one officer was found to have falsified time sheets, the audit revealed a “substantial strain” on the employees who handle payroll for resource officers, and a “critical need” to restructure and hire more staff.
Auditors found that time sheets and overtime pay were reported and calculated manually, rather than digitally. When officers perform extra work for a specific department like athletics or transportation, that department processes and approves those time sheets. In the absence of a clear policy on the issue, those departments process pay on different schedules. And there’s no central process to review the time sheets for accuracy. Most of these are high-risk problems, auditors said, meaning they require immediate attention.
“Certainly,” Jones said, “the system is broken. And more needs to be done.”
Auditors recommended hiring another employee to oversee pay in the Department of Public Safety and updating school board policies to eliminate discrepancies. They also recommended creating standardized time sheets for use across the district and establishing a centralized review process for public safety employees’ time sheets.
DeKalb is no stranger to operational issues like these. The district is paying more than $1 million to evaluate how it spends sales tax money on capital improvements — a process that’s taken over a year because records were erroneously destroyed and no digital copies existed, district staff recently said. And DeKalb is years behind and millions of dollars over budget in its transition to a new computer system for tracking financial and human resources information. State auditors have said delays in that process pose financial risks to the district. In recent years, state auditors also found dozens of employees who were receiving bonuses without justification, salaries above their experience levels or more vacation time than they were allowed.
Hiring challenges, which can lead to a reliance on overtime, have existed in metro Atlanta schools for years. In the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, the AJC found that six Atlanta-area school systems, including DeKalb, were trying to fill 100 school resource officer openings.
DeKalb has been able to hire only a couple of officers this year, Superintendent Devon Horton said in a previous interview. Another three or four people are being trained at the state level to work in the district. In upcoming budget discussions, district leaders will consider raising the salary for officers or paying for specialty training in an effort to recruit more people. DeKalb, the state’s third-largest school system, employs about 50 school resource officers.
One thing district leaders don’t want to do is require officers to work overtime, auditors stated, for fear of losing more qualified staff. But the school board is in the process of reviewing and updating all of the district’s policies, including the ones about overtime and compensation.
“It’s been tough,” Horton said.
School resource officers
School resource officers are law enforcement personnel stationed at schools. They carry weapons, respond to emergencies on campus and work with school personnel to maintain a safe environment. School districts often rely on overtime for officers to fill gaps left by hiring difficulties and a growing demand for security at extracurriculars like athletic events, dances and graduations.
Timeline of investigation
- Sept. 22, 2023: Auditors complete a report outlining problems with how the district pays school resource officers and noting evidence of possible payroll fraud by Victor James.
- Oct. 19, 2023: Audit report is sent to district leaders to further investigate possible payroll fraud.
- Dec. 7, 2023: James is put on paid administrative leave.
- Dec. 12, 2023: Investigation is opened into James’ conduct.
- Feb. 26, 2024: James is notified of the investigation’s outcome.
- March 6, 2024: James is terminated from his position.
Sources: Audit inquiry report, investigation report and district spokesperson
