The Thurston County Sheriff's Office suspended a corrections deputy without pay for collecting 27 hours of pay for time they did not work last year.
An internal investigation found the deputy showed up to work late two dozen times and did not report their late arrival on their timesheet, according to a news release.
As a result, the deputy was suspended without pay for three days. The news release states the deputy expressed remorse for the unaccounted time.
To prevent this from happening again, the sheriff's office says it has made "internal changes to ensure daily reporting" to the on-duty supervisor at the start of shifts.
"While TCSO recognizes employees have personal lives that sometimes conflict with their prescribed job duties, taxpayers dollars must be accounted for in all aspects of office operations," the release states.
"This is a tough one because we are always open to hearing proposals to tweak start times to help staff be successful both on and off the clock," Sanders said on Facebook. "(I recognize employees have lives outside of work). With that being said, after reviewing the statements made in the investigation, I am confident this deputy will recover and do well moving forward."
A sheriff's office employee first noticed the corrections deputy arrived late to work during an "unrelated review of jail footage," according to the news release. The employee noted the deputy did not report their tardiness and later did not update their timesheet.
The internal investigation found 24 similar instances in which the deputy reported to work late, in some cases upwards of 48 minutes.
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