San Jose police officers have been working around the clock to combat an uptick in crime as the numbers of officers diminish. But one officer worked enough that the hours just didn’t seem to add up.
Officer Jeffery Enslen, 45, was booked for one count of felony grand theft Thursday, according to the Mercury News. SJPD’s department of Criminal Investigation Detail recently completed a 9-month investigation into time sheet fraud and presented the findings to the Santa Clara County District Attorney Office.
Enslen was reportedly booked into the Santa Clara County Jail and placed on paid administrative leave from the department.
The arrest comes during a tumultuous time for the SJPD. Just in the past few months the department has been under scrutiny for a spike in homicides, an unusually high number of officers claiming disability to avoid paying federal and state taxes on their pensions and a police chief who is on his way out the door.
Every organization has it’s bad apples, even police departments. When an officer screws up, it is noteworthy. Unfortunately, all the great work done by officer at the SJPD is not noteworthy. The vast majority of the women and men at SJPD are extremely caring and work their asses off. Everyday I see these officers dealing with the worst of the worst and removing them from society. Every day there are murders, robberies, and rapes that are solved by tireless work by these officers. It is too bad this is not as noteworthy in the press as one bad officer.
I watched last weeks City of San Jose Public Safety Committee meeting with dismay. At the 24:30 mark, Pete Constant, calls into question the character of every police officer at the SJPD. Madison Ngyun follows up with the same, followed by Pierluigi Oliverio, who at the 39:50 marks actually starts crying while describing how his constituents don’t trust the police department. The meeting can be seen here:
http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=6087
The SJPD is made up of the finest women and men I have ever met. They are for the vast majority decent, hard working and honorable people, who want to keep the evil people from preying on the good people in our society. They are human, just like everybody else, and are not impermeable to the constant drumbeat of how awful they all are by our mayor, majority of the city council, and the IPA. It is too bad the majority of the city council and mayor are willing to swallow hook, line, and sinker everthing the IPA tells them.
It is such a desservice to undermine the police department the way these people publicy did. It also, quite frankly, makes the job more dangerous for our officers when they turn the community against these officers. Please take a few minutes and watch some of this past week’s meeting to see for yourself.
I agree. It does make the job more dangerous and that is why I think we are seeing so much disrespect and attacks on officers nowadays. The politicians have turned the citizens against the officers and in turn, the citizens no longer respect the badge.
So the disrespect shown to officers has nothing to do with the scamming of time sheets, the verbal disrepect that is constantly thrown by officers towards the Mayor and other citizen elected officials, nor by the gleeful childish behavior they showed by The Ticket fiasco or. Heck this past year San Jose PD had not one but two officers who embezzled funds from OTHER OFFICERS and were charged and convicted.
Deflect much?
If you feel the council member’s behavior is scandalous and disrespectful the way you choose to respond is BY ACTING THE EXACT SAME WAY and it does nothing to improve the PD reputation in the community. It is a shame because I agree that the majority of cops are probably good guys & women. Too bad they get smeared by the smarmy, self righteous complaining & whiny sorts that make such public splashes all the time.
Wow, if this video does not show how much this council especially Constant, hates his former employer nothing will. How rude to talk to the acting chief of police like that. How many police officers resigned / retired in the last two months? Now you know why! Who wants to work here.
Pete, don’t forget the times you were caught at your personal photography business while on duty. And your recent political actions while on leave from council. Sounds like time sheet fraud to me.
All three of you on the committee are a disgrace. Nice crocodile tears PO.
Must see video for all to see, thanks for the post.
observation: Thank you for taking the time to keep a close eye on the members of the Public Safety Committee. Quitter Constant, PLO and Maddie Nguyen’s comments calling SJPD officer’s integrity into question is clear-cut evidence of the hatred and contempt they hold for SJPD. All of this nonsense about the “few bad apples…” are words right out of Independent Police Auditor Ladoris Cordell’s mouth!
The timing of these comments at the October 18, 2012 Public Safety Committee are nothing more than 3 members of Mayor Reed’s Gang of 6 going on the offensive to support their colleague Reckless Rose Herrera’s campaign mailer which attacked SJPD’s integrity by, among other things, accusing officer of engaging in a “work slowdown.”
The comments disparaging SJPD are also meant to distract everyone from the Fair Political Practices finding that Mayor Reed broke the law by contributing to Rose Herrera’s re-election campaign detailed in the FPPC’s October 15, 2012 letter.
Who does Quitter Constant think he is kidding when he says he is troubled that “other government officials are losing confidence in the police department?”
How about SJI or the Merc seriously looking into Quitter Constant’s lack of integrity? He wants to call on SJPD to provide “accurate communication?” How about Constant’s communication skills: calling in sick to a City Council Meeting claiming to be recuperating from back surgery while he was on the other side of the country in Tampa Florida attending the GOP national convention? After he is caught he claimed to have “updated” original “communication” by coming clean and reporting his true whereabouts and activities and have his “timesheet adjusted.”
-or-
How about Quitter Constant’s communication with the MercuryNews where he “claimed” to have resigned his membership in the San Jose Police Officer’s Association after a hearing to discern whether or not to revoke his membership? He claimed to resign but as of the date of his interview with the Merc, the SJPOA had not received his resignation! Was that a “grandstand” move by Quitter where was hoping to end deliberations on his membership in the hopes the board would simply drop the matter as a moot issue? A move that might have allowed Quitter to reapply for membership at some future date?
Meyer Weed,
All I can say about your post is that you are preaching to the choir. The hypocrisy shown by these folks is undeniable.
Too bad Pete’s nose doesn’t grow with each hypocritical lie he tells, or behavior he displays. Now that would be a story worth reading!
Again the San Jose Police Department demonstrates its integrity by by investigating and prosecuting one of it’s own. Perhaps several more cases to follow as conditions, pay, and morale continue to deteriorate. The next progression will be the assimilation of the career criminal into the ranks as recruit officers. The profession in San Jose has been turned into a J-O-B. Is anyone surprised?
With Alumni like Pete Constant, and leadership like Mayor Chuck Reed, integrity will become innocuous.
Well, that is sad. Cop gone bad. He of all people should know that criminals do not get away, for long. People did say, however, that when salaries are cut, it would create some rogue cops that would find other ways to make the difference. Looks like this one decided to make it up on his time card. I bet he is sitting in that cell and wondering how he went from being a good guy to a criminal. Really, really sad. He ruined his life over a few dollars.
Im glad the SJPD investigated and turned its finding to the DA. Transparency is what the Mayor preaches but does not practice. Hey Rose hows the crime coming along in D8? Do you actually listen to your consituents or do you talk at them like an angry woman?
If you really want to know how most of the city council care about officers, all to have to do is listen to the last Public Safety Committee, chaired by Pete Constant on October 18, 2012.
http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=6087
You can tell right away Constant’s attitude when he tells AC Rikki Goede prior to her comments about the updates on the department, “NOT THAT I’M IN A HURRY, BUT I’M IN A HURRY’. Pretty much set the tone that he couldn’t care less what she had to say.
Constant Comments:
On rise in burglaries –
* Compared San Jose rates to Sunnyvale and Palo Alto. Said if you don’t like our rate move to Palo Alto where it is higher.
* Stated department is putting out misinformation.
* Then changed his tone, stating department is in fact putting out “flat out lies for political reasons”.
* Stated he only heard that the VCET Unit and Burglary Unit were disbanded through the press then texted the mayor and city manager who were also not notified by Chief.
* Was told to his face by Chief Moore if officers are misinforming the public they should be reported to IA or the IPA.
* Suggested that officers assigned to monitoring his political agenda should be reassigned to investigate burglaries.
Of course Nguyen and Oliverio who were also on committee said they had received similar complaints. Oliverio stated while shedding a few tears that “his residents” are afraid of the police and have a massive amount of distrust for officers.
I have never seen such disrespect by council members for Command Staff of the department. I did appreciate the fact that AC Goede explained to Nguyen that officers leaving for other departments now are out numbering retirements.
What a disgusting disgrace. This council makes me sick to the pit of my stomach!
Man there is a lot of drama on this city council. Mayor is CORRUPT, courageous Pier is crying because district 6 residents don’t trust the police?!?!? I live in Willow Glen, I asked my neighbors if they trust me, they all said “Yes.” And poor Curly, he’s still mad about getting kicked out of the POA.
Remember, when you tell one lie, you have to tell ten more to cover it up. Then, too cover up those ten lies you have to tell a hundred more. My advice to the mayor and puppets, think before you speak, because all that is coming out of your mouth’s are lies.
But don’t worry, why would they start telling the truth now.
Oh my god, dude lies on his time sheet and you blast the city council?
Seriously, the police force membership has been whining up a storm way too much of late and as a group of ‘professionals’ needs to grow up and realize that being professionals means adapting to changing economic circumstances. I am fed up with the constant platitudes given to a group that is playing a dangerous game of chicken with public interest.
And by the way, the city council is not turning the public against the city’s paid public workforce, those workers themselves are.