RICHMOND, Va. -- Four Richmond Police officers, who were a part of former Mayor Dwight Jones’ security detail, are suing the city over unpaid overtime.
In the complaint, officers assigned to former Mayor Jones’ security detail allege that the city owes them money for providing security and transportation to Jones and his family.
According to the 13-page lawsuit, that security detail would show up at Jones' house beginning at 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning after he sent them a text message indicating he was ready to be picked up.
The officers would then remain on duty until well after midnight, the lawsuit claims.
The officers claim that they were required to drive Jones to a Washington Redskins game, transport him on personal trips out of state and would run errands for his family.
The lawsuit points out that all those assignments are examples of wasteful government spending.
The complaint says rather than eliminate Mayor Jones security, the Richmond Police Department decided not to pay overtime earned by those officers. Chief Alfred Durham cut off overtime payments in May of 2015 through January of this year when Mayor Levar Stoney took office and disbanded the unit.
“It’s a shame that it gets to this point," said Richmond City Council President Chris Hilbert.
Hilbert has been highly critical of Jones' security detail. He voted last year to reduce it and re-assign those officers back to RPD.
We asked Hilbert, can the city afford to pay out a settlement, if one is reached in this case?
“If there is one, we can't talk about it. We can’t discuss the specifics of it," said Hilbert. "But I will say, we really need to do a better job of oversight within these departments and maybe have human resources and the legal division come in and make sure our I’s are dotted and our t’s are crossed. So, that we can avoid this in the future."
Before taking office, Mayor Jones did cut his security team in half from 11 to 5 officers. City officers filed a federal lawsuit in 2011 for unpaid overtime and won a $7 million settlement.
CBS 6 reached out to RPD, but they would not comment saying the department does not comment on pending litigation.
