when I travel for business, I pay out of my own pocket and submit receipts for reimbursement. Once I tried to get reimbursed for a cheeseburger and they rejected it (correctly, it was covered by my per diem). So why the fuck do government employees get to spend whatever they want with no justification or oversight? Why did they pay for expensive hotels in the first place??

Why doesn't the Stranger look into the multitude of Deputies who have taken Whistleblower protections against Urquhart? Urquhart believes he makes the rules yet feels the rules (or laws) don't apply to him. That's the story you should be writing.

I love it when the Left suddenly cares about being responsible with taxpayer dollars.

Welcome to government. It's this shit across the board.

@1

So why the fuck do government employees get to spend whatever they want with no justification or oversight?

Ansel makes it quite clear that Atwood was fired because SPD employees don't get to spend whatever they want with no justification, that there are in fact very specific spending limits, and that the fraud was discovered precisely because there is oversight for these expenses.

Maybe you read a completely different article about all this, and just dropped in here to vent when you saw the headline?

@1 I work for a government, and generally it works that way - I've never been high enough to have my hands on a charge card.

What's more reasonable is why it took so long to "catch" this behavior - it's difficult to spot if you aren't explicitly looking.

@all: It is not SPD, it is King County Sheriffs Dept.

She is a shitbag but the idea of checking on potential recruits and watching them in action is a good one.

Take the polygraph equipment out to the dumpster and throw it in. It seems to be correct more often than not but it's unreliable and results can be interpreted subjectively. Read F. Lee Bailey for the Defense for a factual discussion by someone who regularly relied on polygraphy.