BATON ROUGE - Two current and two former state police troopers have been arrested for allegedly raking in thousands of dollars by abusing a program designed to supplement local law enforcement agencies.

According to Louisiana State Police, the four officers were arrested after a nearly six-month investigation into the LACE program. The program allows troopers to conduct extra law enforcement duties in order to supplement local parish and state agencies. Troopers work LACE outside of their regularly scheduled shifts and their overtime is paid for by the parish District Attorney.

LSP says the four arrested were found to have abused the program. According to a release, this mostly involved the troopers falsifying records concerning hours worked. 

The officers and the corresponding parishes in which they work extra hours are as follows.

East Baton Rouge Parish:

Daryl Thomas
2 counts of violation of LRS 14:133 - Filing False Public Records
1 count of violation of LRS 14:67- Felony Theft (greater than $15,000)

Byron Sims (former Trooper)
4 counts of violation of LRS 14:133 - Filing False Public Records
1 count of violation of LRS 14:67- Felony Theft (greater than $21,000)

Calcasieu Parish:

Jimmy Rogers (former Trooper)
74 counts of violation of LRS 14:132 - Injuring Public Records
1 count of violation of LRS 14:134 - Malfeasance in Office

Rapides Parish:

Wayne Taylor
14 counts of violation of LRS 14:132 - Injuring Public Records
1 count of violation of LRS 14:134 - Malfeasance in Office

The two current employees include Master Trooper Daryl Thomas with over 23 years of service and Senior Trooper Wayne Taylor with over 11 years of service. Employment status for both Troopers is pending the administrative process.

Arrest records show that Thomas and Sims would regularly return home well before the end of their shifts, but would still claim to have worked the full hours. Records also show Thomas and Sims secured more than $15,000 and $21,000 respectively by allegedly lying about their hours worked. 

The program was suspended during the investigation and was reinstated on Feb. 5, 2018 with additional oversight processes in place.