BALTIMORE — A gas card issued by Baltimore City Police to a deceased sergeant racked up charges, to the tune of $2,000.
The revelation comes from a newly released Inspector General's report.
The sergeant died in April 2022.
Certain City employees are issued gasoline cards to fill up their work vehicles.
Policy states when an officer leaves the agency, they're required to submit two checklists documenting the return of city owned property.
The Inspector General found only one form used to record whether gas cards were returned, and that portion appeared incomplete.
A commanding officer returned the late sergeant's departmental equipment, but they couldn't recall if a gas card was among those items.
So whose hands the card ended up in remains a mystery.
One thing's known, someone, without authorization, swiped the card on 30 separate occasions, stealing nearly $2000 worth of pre-paid fuel following the sergeant's death.
According to the report, the transactions were made between April and August 2022, amounting to 429 gallons of gas.
Investigators tried hunting down surveillance footage at the gas stations where the card was used, but the video was unavailable due to elapsed time.
Department rules further indicate gas cards are to be deactivated once an officer's employment ends.
That didn't happen. In fact the sergeant's gas card remained active until May 2023, a year after they passed.
While investigating this matter, the Inspector General uncovered more than a dozen other active gas cards assigned to former officers.
Fortunately, those cards were not charged.
In response to the Inspector General's findings, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley listed 15 steps the department would follow to avoid similar situations in the future.
