MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - City Councilwoman Janis Fullilove said everybody's been duped by former Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin. Her reaction comes after a newly released audit of the MPD's Organized Crime Unit, as well as the discovery that tens of thousands of crimes may have gone unreported.
Now, we're learning cops in the OCU used drug money for person gain and were paid overtime they didn't earn.
Fullilove asked for a city audit on the Organized Crime Unit of the Memphis Police when former director Larry Godwin was leaving, and successor Toney Armstrong was about to take office. The results have her and others in city government concerned.
There's a drug fund of more than $3.8 million, which can be used for drug education and enforcement. According to the report, there was improper use of those drug funds, which included $183,555 in overtime pay and more than $41,000 in purchases, neither of which should have come out of the fund. The audit also showed a lack of adequate documentation for expenditures. An OCU officer even used some of the money to pay his personal MLGW bill of $216.54.
The audit also says that former Director Godwin's son, a member of the Organized Crime Unit, got preferential treatment because his dad was the boss. That’s something that Godwin denied in a letter responding to the audit findings, saying, "I will simply state he not receive special treatment."
The former director hasn't returned phone calls, e-mails or text messages from ABC 24 News, but Fullilove said he needs to say something.
The audit also says police should be forced to put more than $218,000 dollars back into the drug fund.
This is not the first time the organized crime unit has been audited. The state did one more than a decade ago that resulted in massive changes in the unit and the department.
