It screamed of senior officers close to the chief of police being rewarded for their loyalty with trips abroad to bogus training courses and staying at five-star hotels at the taxpayers’ expense. The item below named names and cited specific cities, hotels, and figures. He couldn’t say he was surprised, not even by the names of the officers involved, many of whom were attached to his district. It had been a long time since he himself had been sent overseas or enjoyed the luxuries afforded to those with friends in high places. It wasn’t for lack of trying. He’d done his best to win favor with the brass, but something had always gotten in the way. There were too many fuckups under his command, too many mistakes that made their way into the press. And there were complaints from subordinates as well: old-timers who groused about the lack of authorized overtime, young upstarts who felt they weren’t moving up the ladder fast enough. Just recently he’d made an example of a highly respected detective in order to demonstrate his determination to make room in the higher ranks for younger cops and send the message that on his watch you paid for your mistakes no matter who you were.
