A Miami police officer has been fired after an internal affairs probe concluded he billed the city for nearly 100 hours of off-duty work that never actually happened, often clocking in from his Broward County home instead of from paid security details.
The firing of Officer Erick Hernandez became official on April 14, 2026, after investigators compared his GPS history and timesheets with the invoices he submitted and found what they say were glaring discrepancies. The case has put fresh heat on long-criticized weaknesses in the Miami Police Department’s extra-duty system.
According to Miami New Times, Internal Affairs investigators say Hernandez submitted invoices for 48 off-duty jobs between April 23 and July 24, 2025. Payroll records show he was paid as if he had worked 332 hours at $50.50 an hour. The investigation concluded he failed to work 99.14 of those hours and collected more than $5,000 for time he did not actually put in. Investigators recommended termination, pointing to what they described as a pattern of similar conduct in his personnel file.
In a termination letter attached to the internal affairs file, the city states, “You are hereby notified that you are terminated as a Police Officer effective April 14, 2026,” citing departmental rules on truthfulness along with several Florida statutes, including theft and official misconduct. The letter is available via the termination letter. The internal affairs summary says Hernandez told investigators he was “going through a difficult period in his life” and later “accepted responsibility and apologized” for failing to correct his time records.
Oversight Gaps In Extra-Duty Work
Extra-duty gigs are a lucrative staple for many officers, but watchdogs have been warning for years that the system is ripe for abuse when scheduling, payroll, and oversight are scattered across different units and vendors.
A 2019 review by the city’s Civilian Investigative Panel of MPD’s extra-duty assignments flagged shaky recordkeeping and repeated instances of officers blowing past allowable extra-duty hours. The panel urged centralized tracking and vendor billing to tighten controls; details are laid out in the Civilian Investigative Panel report.
Precedent And Possible Fallout
On the administrative side, the city has already made its move by firing Hernandez. What happens next could involve a very different set of players: prosecutors, auditors, or both. Criminal charges and civil efforts to claw back pay remain on the table if outside agencies decide to pick up the case.
There is precedent for that kind of escalation. Similar investigations have shifted from internal discipline to criminal courtrooms elsewhere in Florida. In one recent case, a Seminole County deputy accused of fabricating off-duty hours was charged earlier this year in what prosecutors described as an alleged overtime scam, and some departments have tried to recoup overpayments when misconduct is confirmed.
For now, it is not clear whether Miami officials have referred the Hernandez investigation to prosecutors. The local police union did not respond to requests for comment. Court dockets and city filings will show whether this remains an internal black eye for the department or turns into a criminal and financial battle over those disputed hours.
