Rick Burn, a Fort Lauderdale police officer for 25 years, has been fired after an investigation by the department over whether Burn ignored calls while on duty and falsified time cards to collect more in overtime pay than he deserved.
A source close to the department provided the Juice with a copy of an email sent an hour ago by Internal Affairs notifying the command staff of its ruling on Burn. He has been suspended without pay, and his termination will be made official on August 31.
The allegations against Burn surfaced this May, following an incident in which Burn failed to respond to another officer's call for backup, according to an article in the Sun-Sentinel.
According to that article, which you can read here, Burn was supposed to back up an officer responding to a 911 call that came from a retirement home. But Burn refused to go on the call, saying that it was probably just "senile old people." Using the GPS data embedded in Burn's patrol car, investigators learned that at the time Burn was on duty, his car was sitting in front of his home in Pompano Beach.
You can add Burn to the list of Fort Lauderdale cops who have been
purged by a command staff that's shown it's willing to bump heads
with the powerful police officers' union.
Of course, we reporters are a tough lot to please, and the Juice joins the Daily Pulp in wondering how Scott Rothstein security guard Sgt. Steven Greenlaw got off with just a slap on the wrist. But this being Broward Town, we have to take baby steps toward public integrity, and at least FLPD is moving in the right direction.
UPDATE: The investigation of Greenlaw occurred outside the department, through the Fort Lauderdale City Manager's office. So if there's fault to be found in Greenlaw's treatment, that belongs to the city not the police.
