An Orlando police officer, Oscar Polanco, has turned himself in over allegations of fraudulently billing vendors for extra-duty shifts that investigation suggests he failed to work. According to ClickOrlando, Polanco, 28, is faced with charges of scheme to defraud and grand theft of $10,000 or more, per the Orange County Clerk of Court. The officer purportedly used RollKall, a service designed to manage extra-duty work for law enforcement, to claim 76 jobs between May 13, 2024, and July 27, 2024, most of which were allegedly unfulfilled.
Investigators reportedly focused on 40 extra-duty assignments that Polanco signed onto from May to July of the previous year, providing evidence that Polanco failed to duly check in and out of service for most of these assignments. "It is extremely unusual for an individual to not want to be paid for work they have performed, especially when the amount is in the thousands of dollars," investigators noted in a statement detailed by ClickOrlando. This finding called attention to the discrepancy between Polanco's records and his actual police activities, which included a lack of logged entries on his police department computer, no radio activation, and no usage of his body-worn camera.
As reported by WFTV, evidence suggests that Polanco claimed to have worked extra-duty jobs earning $14,853.17 without performing them. "In conclusion, the evidence presented demonstrates that Oscar Polanco engaged in a deliberate scheme to defraud vendors by claiming payment for extra-duty assignments that he did not perform," the police report states. Through exploiting the RollKall application, Polanco reportedly recorded false attendance, bypassing standard OPD communication protocols and oversight mechanisms.
Several locations were mentioned as victims of the alleged scheme, including Shoppes of Windsor Oaks, Ramada Plaza, and Shoppes of Portofino, among others. The vendors involved paid significant sums for the policing services they were led to believe they had secured. Polanco has been implicated in fraudulently billing these businesses for multiple shifts, with some payments already dispensed before the unearthed discrepancies halted further transactions. "The Orlando Police Department was paid a total of $926.25 in fees from the above vendors for jobs billed by Polanco," which now may need to be refunded, according to the ClickOrlando report.
Polanco, who joined in 2022 with prior law enforcement experience, turned himself in on Monday after an arrest warrant was issued.
