New LAPD chief collected $1.27M payout before being rehired: report

LAPD Chief Michel Moore Moore joined the police force in 1981 and rose through the ranks. (Chief Michel Moore/Twitter)

Michel Moore, the new chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, collected a one-time retirement payment of $1.27 million after he retired for a few weeks before being rehired for the same role and pay, The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

Under the city’s controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan, known as DROP, a veteran police officer or firefighter can-- for the last five years of service-- receive their pensions plus salaries. The pension payment is transferred to a special account as long as they retire.

The Times reported that Moore left his $240,000-a-year post as chief of operations and rejoined just a few weeks later for the same job at the same pay.

'You may call it suspicious timing, but I didn’t program it that way'

— Chief Michael Moore

The paper pointed out that if Moore had been promoted before retiring, he would have lost out on the money. Chiefs, the report said, are excluded from DROP.

He also managed to pull in $170,000 of unused sick and vacation days, the report said.

Since 2008, 51 “chiefs” at LAPD and LAFD have completed the program, the report said. The program paid more than $1.6 billion in extra pension checks since 2001.

“You may call it suspicious timing, but I didn’t program it that way,” Moore said, according to the paper. He reportedly said in an interview that the plan to have him return was approved by the former police chief and Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Moore is widely respected, but the paper reported that his retirement and rehiring raised eyebrows.

Keith Comrie, a former L.A. chief administrative officer, told the paper that leaders at the police and fire departments carry “sharp pencils and they stay up all night trying to figure out how to suck as much out of the city as possible.”

Moore told the paper that he was approached by the former chief, Charlie Beck, and was asked to come back on the administrator role. Moore said he was unaware that Beck was going to retire.