NYPD captain allowed to retire after admitting to collecting around $60K for fake overtime hours

January 17, 2023

A New York Police Department (NYPD) captain has been forced out of his job after admitting to receiving around $60,000 for over 400 more hours than he actually worked from 2019 through late 2020.

After investigators uncovered his actions while he served as a detective commander in southern Brooklyn, Jackson Cheng, a 19-year veteran in the NYPD, was allowed to retire after admitting to his charges, police sources told the New York Daily News.

While a department prosecutor urged the police department to fire Cheng, 45, NYPD trial judge Paul Gamble recommended instead to let the former Brooklyn police captain retire and receive his pension.

Gamble noted that there was no extraordinary circumstance or hardship to justify Chen’s actions.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell announced Cheng would be allowed to retire and receive part of his pension on Nov. 28, 2022.

Chris Monahan, Cheng’s union representative, confirmed that the former NYPD captain would not receive his full pension and would also lose thousands of dollars in other benefits, money that he could have received had he left the force in good standing.

The discrepancy was uncovered while investigators from the Internal Affairs Bureau were doing a routine review of the overtime work of the officers.

During a probe, investigators discovered that Cheng clocked in at work for a total of 432 hours and 37 minutes, including 196 hours and 34 minutes of overtime, between May 2019 through October 2020.

A source familiar with the matter told the New York Daily News that Cheng only received $1,200 in overtime work, which he agreed to pay back, and that he was saving the remaining overtime hours he clocked to be used for future days off.

The source added that Cheng, a member of the NYPD’s Asian Hate Crime Task Force, argued that he worked remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was revealed that he never received permission to do so.

Cheng, who was named the vice president of the NYPD’s Asian-American Police Executives Council, claimed that he was working on crime scenes across the five boroughs during the extra hours he clocked in.

During a police hearing, Cheng explained that he was caring for his sick parents during some of the working hours he rendered when he should have been at work instead.

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