Two Montgomery County police officers ownone of the companies at the heart of an investigation into whether more than 100 public safety employees tried to use money from a taxpayer-supported tuition program to buy their own sniper rifles at steep discounts.
Police Sgt. Alfven Uy and Officer Aaron Bailey are listed on state incorporation records as owners of Global Law Enforcement Advisory Group, which county officials said may have improperly used money from a tuition assistance program to give $200 flashlights to course participants in 2007.
Global essentially became Applied Sciences for Public Safety a year later, according to countyofficials and public documents. An investigation by the county sheriff’s office uncovered that participants for a training course offered by the company last year were given a chance to buy a Glock handgun, typically worth around $500, for $50, said Sheriff Raymond Kight.
More than 100 county public safety personnel signed up since July 1 to take courses with Applied Sciences this year, which Kight said was offering participants $1,000 SWAT-style sniper rifles for $400.
The county has suspended any applications for the course, and the county attorney’s office is investigating whether tuition money was used to subsidize the price of the guns.
The county paid the companies a total of nearly $500,000 in the last five years.
Montgomery County requires its employees to seek approval from the county’s Ethics Commission before taking outside employment. County records show that the commission approved Uy and Bailey’s work as “senior consultants” for Global in 2004. Bailey was approved to be a “law enforcement consultant” for Applied Sciences in 2008.
Uy and Bailey once served together on the county’s firearms task force, county records show. Bailey continues to work for the county’s firearms investigation unit, and Uy works at the county’s police training academy.
The Ethics Commission approved five other county police officers to work for the companies as instructors or consultants, including three instructors at the county’s training academy.
Incorporation records for Applied Sciences do not indicate who owns the company, and list only a Calvert County attorney as the registered agent. A house owned by Deputy Sheriff Keith Brubacher is listed as the company’s principal address.
The law enforcement personnel involved with the companies did not return messages for comment.
County human resources director Joseph Adler said the county had not received any information it had requested from Applied Sciences’ director of business relations, Richard Shonk, who is listed as an adviser and instructor for Global on a networking Web site.
“They’ve not called, they’ve not e-mailed, just silence,” Adler said.
The contact number Shonk provided to the county has been disconnected.
