Policing for Profit: Drug Fund Pays For Bulldozer Shipped To Police Chief's Land

By Phil Williams, Chief Investigative Reporter
NewsChannel5.com
Jul. 06, 2012

MONTEREY, Tenn. -- NewsChannel 5's continuing "Policing for Profit" investigation has uncovered new questions about how government equipment ended up on land owned by the local police chief.

Now, as a result of those questions, District Attorney General Randy York of Cookeville has called in the TBI to investigate.

At the center of the investigation is money spent out of the drug fund at the Monterey Police Department in Putnam County. That's the agency that, our investigation discovered, took $22,000 off a New Jersey man during a routine traffic stop along I-40. The officer seized the cash based on his suspicions that it might be drug money.

In this case, NewsChannel 5's investigation began with questions about a U.S. Army surplus bulldozer, which Monterey police had shipped in using money from the town's drug fund. (The bulldozer was provided free of charge, but it cost $5,100 to have it shipped in. A check was written out of the town drug fund.)

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