NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Investigators confirmed Friday morning that they also found issues on timesheets for now-former Millersville Police Chief Glenn Alred.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates first uncovered discrepancies in Alred’s timesheet after a meeting where POST Commissioners said they believed Millersville Police may have been operating illegally.
State law prohibits part-time officers from working more than 20 hours per week or 100 hours per month.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates first uncovered earlier in the year that Alred was working full-time hours and making traffic stops on his own without being a certified officer in the state of Tennessee.
We passed our findings to the POST Commission, and soon after, investigators explained to Alred that he could no longer work full-time. They later discovered that Millersville Police Chief Melvin Brown was also not certified.
According to investigators, too much time had passed for both men since they were last certified, which in Brown's case meant, enrolling in transition school. Alred, meanwhile, was told he had to enroll once again in the police academy.
In July, investigators explained that not only was Brown still working full-time, but that Alred never showed up for training.
They also explained that they received multiple complaints about Alred working beyond the part-time hours he’s allowed to work as a non-certified officer.
Investigators were told to go back to Millersville, but this time pull timesheets and compare them with calls for service.
On Friday, investigators said they discovered multiple discrepancies between timesheets, dispatch calls, body camera footage and swipe records in Millersville City Hall.
They said while they can’t prove Alred was working beyond the 100 hours per month, there was evidence to show Alred was not logging all his hours.
Investigators found multiple occasions where Alred was seen on body camera working as a police officer, without logging those hours on his timesheet.
According to his timesheet, Alred said he worked on June 30 and not again until July 6, but once again dispatch calls showed that wasn’t the case.
Records show Alred responded to calls on July 1, 2, and 3.
We counted nine calls on July 4 and another three on July 5.
NewsChannel5 Investigates sent these findings to Millersville City Manager Scott Avery in July and asked why he believed Alred chose not to log these hours.
The records from dispatch only show when Alred showed up to a scene, but it doesn’t show what he was doing in between calls. This means he could have been on patrol the entire time — just not on the clock.
We asked Avery: “Is this happening across the board? How often is this happening where you have an officer who is putting in more hours than they’re telling you about?”
“It shouldn’t be happening at all,” Avery replied.
Alred and now-former Millersville Police Chief Melvin Brown both resigned shortly after NewsChannel5 Investigates began comparing dispatch records with timesheets.
Alred wrote a letter of resignation citing “the ongoing and relentless harassment through false allegations directed at myself, the Chief of Police, the city manager, and our officers.”
Brown claimed he had “grown weary of periodic information by POST Commission and other anonymous allegations regarding staff members being published by local media in out-of-context sound bites that would lead one to believe something is amiss despite supporting statements from a POST Investigator and local District Attorney General.”
NewsChannel5 Investigates reached out to Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley on Friday who said he reviewed the findings from POST investigators, and it doesn’t change his decision not to prosecute.
“Although it has been reported from various sources that Glenn Alred was working full-time, there is no proof according to the investigator’s report that Mr. Alred worked more than 100 hours in any month in contravention of POST Commission guidelines after this matter had been brought to the attention of Millersville authorities by the Commission," Whitley said. "Now that both Glen Alred and Melvin Brown have resigned from the police department, the situation appears to have resolved itself.”
Whitley also reiterated a point by investigators that Millersville City Manager Scott Avery has been transparent in offering whatever records they need.
“I take the integrity of my team very seriously,” Avery said.
Avery promised commissioners that he will play a greater role in the day-to-day operations of the police department until they hire a new police chief.
“All administrative non-law enforcement matters are being handled by myself. I handle all the HR. All the backgrounds are going through my fingers. Everything is being done by the book,” Avery said.
Millersville Police now have two lieutenants rotating as acting chiefs on 12-hour shifts.
Commissioners passed a motion to invite Millersville back every quarter for an update on their search for a new police chief and how they plan to stay in compliance.
