He recommended the case go to a larger agency with more resources.
Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando on WFMD’s Morning News Express on Wed., Jan. 31st, 2024.
Frederick, Md (KM) The Frederick Police Department says it was first contacted by officials at city hall when they first learned the City of Frederick was the victim of wire fraud connected with the retrofitting of the new police headquarters. That’s according to Police Chief Jason Lando who was a guest during Wednesday’s “Morning News Express” on WFMD.
Lando says he consulted with department officials and determined it would be better to bring in a larger entity with more resources to handle this type of case. “Also to prevent a conflict of interest, we felt as the city police we shouldn’t investigating the city. So we decided to reach out to our law enforcement partners. We reached out to the FBI and also to the State Police. And ultimately, the State Police took the case,” he said.
Not many details about the investigation and the fraud have been released, but State Police say the city lost $280,527.30 in this wire fraud.
“This is not uncommon. We see cities across the country that are falling victim to this, and we just felt that the State Police or the FBI would have better resources to deal a wire fraud investigation,”: he continued. “That’s not something that we do everyday at FPD, and so we did send out the investigation externally.”
The fraud involves retrofitting the former William Donald Schaefer Building into a new police headquarters. “This is a project that we’re working in the Police Department, but also as a city. It’s stinks! We do want to find out who is responsible for this, and hopefully the State Police using their resources is able to do that,” Lando says.
Even though fraud investigations are not something the Frederick Police does on regular basis, Chief Lando says anyone who feels they’re victim of a fraud should contact their local police. He says even if they can’t investigate it, the police can refer that person to another agency.
Despite this wire fraud investigation, the city says it will continue retrofitting the Schaefer Building into a new police headquarters.
By Kevin McManus