Three Jacksonville Officers Accused of Claiming More Than $33,000 in Overtime They Did Not Work

A sergeant, an officer and a former officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office have been arrested and accused of collectively claiming more than $33,000 in overtime pay for traffic enforcement work investigators say they never performed.

Sergeant Michael Rourke, Officer Christopher Sosa and former Officer Dylan Bostick each face charges including grand theft, organized fraud and official misconduct, all third-degree felonies under Florida law. All three are presumed innocent, and the allegations have not been tested in court.

The amounts alleged vary by individual. Investigators accuse Rourke of improperly obtaining more than $4,600, Sosa more than $10,700 and Bostick more than $18,000.

What the investigation found

The arrests stem from an investigation conducted by the sheriff's office Integrity Unit, which examined overtime claims submitted in connection with traffic enforcement assignments.

Investigators allege that all three submitted false claims for hours they did not work. Overtime traffic enforcement details are typically funded through grant programs or special allocations and require officers to log the specific hours worked.

In similar Jacksonville cases, investigators have relied on cellphone location data and police radio records to establish where officers actually were during hours they had claimed, a method that produces documentary evidence independent of the officers' own reports.

How the case surfaced

The investigation began after another officer, Christian Madsen, whose arrest was announced in a previous month, was found to have submitted similar fraudulent overtime claims.

That discovery prompted a broader review of overtime submissions, which identified the additional claims now charged. Cases of this type frequently expand in that pattern, with an initial finding prompting a systematic audit that surfaces more.

The sheriff's office has publicly announced each set of arrests as they have occurred, a disclosure approach that departments vary on considerably.

Employment consequences

The agency acted before the criminal charges were filed. In March, following initial investigative findings, Rourke and Sosa were suspended from duty and Bostick resigned.

The sheriff's office has stated it will pursue termination for both Rourke and Sosa. Bostick's resignation removed him from the agency before that process could apply to him.

Separate from employment, Florida certifies law enforcement officers through a state commission that can revoke certification for misconduct. That administrative proceeding operates independently of the criminal case.

An officer who loses state certification cannot work in law enforcement in Florida regardless of the criminal outcome.

What the charges carry

Grand theft, organized fraud and official misconduct are each third-degree felonies in the form charged here, carrying a statutory maximum of five years in prison per count.

Official misconduct specifically addresses public servants who falsify records with intent to obtain a benefit, which is the mechanism alleged in overtime fraud cases.

Organized fraud applies where a scheme to defraud involves multiple transactions, and the degree of the offense scales with the amount obtained.

Sentences in public corruption cases of this scale commonly involve probation, restitution and, in some instances, incarceration, with outcomes varying substantially by case.

Why overtime fraud is a recurring problem

Police overtime systems create a specific vulnerability. Officers working details outside normal shifts often operate with limited direct supervision, and verification frequently depends on the officer's own reporting.

Traffic enforcement details are particularly exposed, because an officer nominally conducting enforcement in a general area cannot easily be verified as present without independent data.

Agencies have responded with technology. GPS tracking in patrol vehicles, automated computer-aided dispatch logging and cross-referencing of citation timestamps against claimed hours all provide verification that paper timesheets do not.

The Jacksonville cases demonstrate both the vulnerability and the detection method, since the evidence in such cases typically comes from the digital record rather than from supervision.

The cost to the public

The dollar figures in cases like this are modest relative to a large agency budget, but the public interest is not primarily financial.

Overtime funded through traffic safety grants is intended to put officers on the road at times and places where enforcement reduces crashes. Hours claimed but not worked mean the enforcement did not occur.

The credibility consequence is larger still. Officers charged with falsifying records face impeachment on that basis in any case where they would testify, which can affect prosecutions unrelated to the misconduct.

Prosecutors maintain lists of officers with credibility issues, and a sustained finding of dishonesty can effectively end an officer's utility as a witness.

Jacksonville's recent record

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is among the largest law enforcement agencies in Florida, serving a consolidated city and county government covering Duval County.

The agency has announced several arrests of its own personnel in recent months across different categories of alleged misconduct, including a separate case involving an officer accused of theft.

Agencies differ in how visibly they handle internal misconduct, and public announcement of officer arrests is a practice that some departments follow and others do not.

How integrity units work

Internal affairs or integrity units investigate allegations of misconduct by an agency's own personnel, operating with a reporting structure intended to insulate them from ordinary chain of command pressure.

Their investigations can result in administrative discipline, criminal referral or both. When conduct appears criminal, cases are typically referred to a state attorney's office for charging decisions.

The effectiveness of such units depends heavily on agency culture and on whether leadership supports investigations that produce uncomfortable findings.

What comes next

The criminal cases will proceed through the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which covers Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, following the standard sequence of arraignment, discovery and either plea negotiation or trial.

Restitution is a common component of resolutions in theft cases involving public funds, and the specific amounts alleged for each defendant would form the basis for any such order.

The administrative termination process for the two still-employed officers proceeds separately and on its own timeline.

How traffic enforcement details are funded

Overtime traffic enforcement in Florida is frequently supported by grant funding administered through state and federal highway safety programs, which pay for officer hours dedicated to specific safety objectives.

Those grants come with documentation requirements, including records of hours worked, locations covered and enforcement activity generated. Agencies report that data to the funding source.

When claimed hours do not correspond to actual work, the consequences extend beyond the agency to the grant program, which may impose repayment obligations or affect future eligibility.

The reporting requirements also create the paper trail that makes these cases provable, since claimed hours can be compared against enforcement output and vehicle location data.

The verification technology available

Modern police vehicles generate substantial location data. Automatic vehicle location systems built into patrol cars record position continuously, and computer-aided dispatch systems log unit status changes.

Body-worn cameras add another layer, since activation records show when an officer was engaged in enforcement activity. Citation and warning records carry timestamps and locations.

Cross-referencing those sources against claimed hours is a straightforward audit, and the Jacksonville investigations reflect exactly that approach.

Agencies that run such audits routinely detect discrepancies early. Those that do not may go years before a problem surfaces.

The broader accountability picture

Public corruption cases involving law enforcement occupy a distinct place in Florida's criminal justice system, in part because the officers charged are members of the institution prosecuting them.

State attorneys handle most such cases, and in higher-profile matters the Florida Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution may become involved, as it has in cases involving elected officials.

Earlier this year the Attorney General charged a sitting Florida sheriff with racketeering in connection with an alleged illegal gambling operation, a case that remains pending with the defendant having pleaded not guilty.

Those cases, whatever their outcomes, shape public confidence in the institutions that bring them.

What the sheriff's office has said

The agency announced the arrests publicly and described the investigation as originating with its own Integrity Unit rather than with an outside complaint or referral.

Agencies that surface misconduct internally and announce it face a tradeoff. Public disclosure invites criticism of the agency, but concealment risks far greater damage if the conduct emerges later through other channels.

The office has indicated it will pursue termination for the two officers still employed, which is the standard administrative response to sustained findings of this nature.

What it means for Duval County

Jacksonville's consolidated government means the sheriff's office serves the entire county, making it responsible for policing a geographic area larger than most American cities.

Traffic enforcement is a substantial component of that work, and the county has recorded significant numbers of serious and fatal crashes in recent years, which is part of why enforcement details are funded.

Hours claimed but not worked represent enforcement that did not occur on roads where the funding was intended to reduce crashes.

How Florida handles officer decertification

The Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission sets the requirements for law enforcement certification in Florida and maintains authority to revoke it for specified categories of misconduct.

Moral character violations, which include theft and falsification of records, are among the grounds for revocation, and the commission acts on cases referred by employing agencies.

The process operates on an administrative standard of proof rather than the criminal standard, which means an officer can lose certification even where a criminal case resolves without conviction.

Florida also participates in a national index that allows agencies in other states to identify applicants who have been decertified elsewhere, closing a loophole that historically allowed officers to move between jurisdictions.

What's next

Whether the overtime audit produces additional charges is not publicly known. Investigations that begin with one case and expand to several often continue until the review of the relevant records is complete.

For the sheriff's office, the practical question is whether verification procedures for overtime details change in response, which is the systemic issue the cases expose.

All three defendants retain the presumption of innocence, and the state carries the burden of proving each charge beyond a reasonable doubt.