Suspect accused of stealing Water Taxi fare cash from locked safe

| Crime | King County Water Taxi

This news comes not from a law-enforcement agency, but from King County Executive Dow Constantine‘s office: Someone has been arrested for stealing King County Water Taxi fare cash from a “locked safe” in the County Marine Division’s office; the theft was discovered last week. (King County Water Taxi refers to the Seattle-Vashon passenger-ferry run as well as West Seattle-Downtown Seattle.) We’ll be seeking more information, but for starters, here’s the full news release:

King County Executive Dow Constantine has directed Executive-branch agencies to evaluate all cash transactions for compliance with the county’s policies and procedures, following the arrest of a suspect in the theft of about $7,500 in cash receipts from a locked safe in the office of the King County Marine Division.

“I am angered to learn that it was possible for any amount of cash to be stolen from a locked safe at the Marine Division,” said Executive Constantine. “We have the right policies in place to ensure that public dollars are protected; I have ordered swift and appropriate action to make sure staff are following those procedures.”

The Executive has directed the county Finance and Business Operations Division to review compliance by Executive-branch agencies with a 2007 Administrative Procedure establishing best practices for cash handling, recording, and bank reconciliation.

King County Department of Transportation (KCDOT) Director Harold Taniguchi is asking an outside organization to review the agency’s current handling of cash receipts, and to design additional procedures and training for employees responsible for cash counting, reconciliation and deposits.

King County Sheriff’s detectives have arrested a suspect in the theft of
fare collection containers for King County water taxi routes. Staff in
DOT’s Marine Division discovered the theft on May 24, and an internal
investigation found evidence of improper access to a locked county safe
where cash fares from the water taxi routes are stored until they are
picked up by armored truck for transport and deposit.

The police investigation led to the arrest of a suspect and a search of
his home which turned up missing fare containers. The Marine Division
terminated the employee and took immediate steps to better secure ferry
cash collections. The Executive today thanked the Sheriff’s Office for
its swift action in the case.

In 2009, the state auditor’s office conducted an annual accountability
audit of county operations and made a number of findings, one of which
pertained to Metro Transit, another division of KCDOT. In that case the
audit found no evidence of missing cash, but made recommendations for
better handling of cash from fare boxes.

As a result, Metro made a number of changes, including limiting access
to cash, improving personnel monitoring, strengthening security of cash
transfers, providing ongoing training, improving reconciliation of fares
collected to cash receipts, and generally improving controls in the
process.

The Sheriff will refer the results of its theft investigation to the
King County Prosecuting Attorney for a decision on charges.

The Marine Division’s offices are on South Jackson Street downtown, according to its website.

marty June 2, 2010 (5:21 pm)

First theft by a ferry employee since Feb. 25!! It’s obvious that cash handling policies need to be revised. http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/archives/195832.asp

WSB June 2, 2010 (5:29 pm)

Separate agencies; I’ll look up to see if that case is still active, since the report’s three months old. Also, if it’s not obvious from the news release above, no identifying information was released regarding the suspect in the King County case. And it came out so late in the day that followup will be difficult till tomorrow … TR

marty June 2, 2010 (5:49 pm)

Google “Washington State ferry theft” and you will get a whole bunch of hits. I really liked the one where four state employees filed suit because their “rights” were violated because WSP used hidden cameras to catch them stealing ferry funds. This is an old problem that hasn’t been fixed.

Sarah Hardt June 2, 2010 (6:44 pm)

Marty’s point is irrelevant. His link is to a case involving the state ferries. This case is at the county. That is like linking a bad bus driver in Tacoma to a bad bus driver here. In any event, it sounds like Dow is moving quickly

marty June 2, 2010 (7:27 pm)

Sarah: Bottom line is that ferry/water taxi money has a history of not making it from the paying passenger to the bank. That point is relevant.

Chuck June 3, 2010 (8:37 am)

Sigh. As if we don’t pay the employees enough, now they have to steal? They get amazing benefits, a $500 uniform stipend, gym membership, free public transit pass, and a GREAT wage… and still steal? What I want to know is if it was a boat employee or an office employee.