An assistant D.C. police chief who received a 10 percent pay boost to his $178,000 annual salary that he wasn’t entitled to told The Washington Examiner that he “didn’t know” he was getting it, and that he’ll pay it back if an official department audit determines he should do so.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says she learned on Dec. 10 that Assistant Chief Alfred Durham was earning the longevity bonus, which he wasn’t entitled to. The bonus is only for department members who have worked for 20 continuous years. Although Durham has 20 years with the department, he left for two years in 2005 to work for the Richmond police department.
“I didn’t know I was receiving it,” Durham said Thursday. “If I’m not entitled to it, I’ll pay it back.”
The head of the city’s department of human resources told The Examiner that Durham isn’t entitled to it.
When Durham’s receiving the bonus was brought to Lanier’s attention, the chief said she immediately launched an audit of all of the department’s roughly 5,000 members’ salaries.
“If the audit determines he was overpaid, we will absolutely ask him to pay it back,” Lanier told The Examiner.
It’s unclear how long Durham was receiving the payment. His record shows that he reached 20 years of service in October 2009, exlcuding the two years he was in Richmond. If he’s been receiving it since then, the District would have paid him about $25,000 more than he was entitled to.
