Audit: Highway Patrol captain commuted 187 miles to work on taxpayer dime

A scathing report from North Carolina auditor Beth Wood revealed several troopers used their work vehicles to drive hundreds of miles because they lived nowhere near their office.

In one case, a Highway Patrol captain lived in Wake County, but traveled about 187 miles to Morganton to work, according to the audit.

Documents showed the captain refueled his work vehicle 44 times in 2016, which was the highest number found during the state auditor’s investigation.

[READ: NC Audit Report on NC Highway Patrol]

"These violations resulted in higher costs and may have jeopardized response times,” Wood wrote.

“Our basic goals is to reduce response times for the public when the calls for service calls come out," Trooper Ray Pierce said.

Pierce covers the Charlotte region, but said all troopers operated under specific residency rules when this happened.

"If you wished to reside outside the county that you were assigned to and worked in, you could not be 20 miles outside the county line that you were assigned to," Pierce said.

But according to Wood, eight troopers were in violation of that rule in 2016.

The biggest violator was a trooper commuting to Morganton, Wood said.

As for the reason why, an official with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety said, "The main reason for driving to their primary residences during the week was to either see family, or to attend a meeting."

But Channel 9 learned the Department of Public Safety recently changed their policy for residency.

"How it impacted us, we basically changed from that 20 miles to a minute ratio. Basically, we have to respond to county line in 45 minutes," Pierce said.

Officials with the Secretary for the Department of Public Safety responded to the auditor's report, saying they took corrective action.

"Pleased to report that each of the employees referred to in your report are currently in compliance with policy,” the Department of Public Safety Secretary official wrote.

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