By PAUL FEELY
New Hampshire Union Leader
October 10. 2018 9:29PM
MANCHESTER — An internal audit of a long-standing police department practice in which police chiefs rewarded officers with a paid day off — which isn’t counted toward earned vacation time — has determined the practice started in the early 1990s as a policy of former police chief Louie Craig and was later expanded “without authorization” by department officials.
The report, compiled by city auditor Kevin Buckley, states former police chief Craig instituted the policy in 1991 as a way to reward officers who acted “above and beyond the call of duty.”
“Since that time the program that originally gave out a few awards has grown to include many other categories of awards and reached a high point of 131 days awarded in fiscal year 2017,” writes Buckley. “The expansion of the program appears to have been done without authorization, lacks any written policies and procedures and leave time is not tracked in the city’s financial system and not reported as a liability in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.”
According to the audit, 466 Chief Days have been awarded between fiscal years 2009 and…
