JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the agency’s new policy to prevent false overtime claims could be difficult to enforce.
With the arrest of three more officers charged in connection with claiming false overtime pay, News4JAX is digging into how the discrepancies were uncovered and how JSO plans to prevent future issues.
Sheriff T.K. Waters announced on Thursday the arrests of two active Jacksonville police officers — Sgt. Michael Rourke and Officer Christopher Sosa — and one former employee — Officer Dylan Bostick.
All three are charged with grand theft, organized fraud and official misconduct, which are third-degree felonies.
Watch the full press conference below:
Former JSO detective Kim Varner said all three arrested officers’ pending legal cases may now be challenged in court because their credibility is now in question.
“Those officers, if they’re lying on those reports, what’s their work going to look like in court?” Varner said.
The sheriff said an investigation sparked by the unrelated arrest of another JSO officer in February revealed that all three had claimed overtime pay for traffic enforcement shifts that they never worked.
The arrest of former officer Christian Madsen, who was accused of falsely claiming $14,000 of overtime when he was actually spending time with his girlfriend, who was also his supervisor, spurred the JSO Integrity Unit to launch a deeper investigation.
They conducted what amounted to a full audit of all traffic overtime claims connected to funding from a Florida Department of Transportation grant, which relies on the iPass system to monitor hours worked.
According to JSO, the overtime assignments require officers to perform pedestrian and bicycle-related safety enforcement and educational activities while remaining in specific enforcement corridors and using JSO communications equipment to check in.
The investigators said they found that from Dec. 1, 2025, to Feb. 23, 2026, Rourke, Sosa and Bostick each submitted overtime entries of various amounts for time that they never actually worked.
According to the arrest reports, investigators flagged Rourke and Bostick’s overtime hours because there were no radio location communications or body camera footage hours in the system during those times.
That led them to check the officers’ cellphone records, which investigators said showed they were not where they said they were during overtime claims.
Rourke, 56, was paid for 51 overtime hours that he didn’t complete between Dec. 1, 2025, and Feb. 7, 2026, resulting in more than $4,600 in public funds, Sheriff Waters said.
Bostick, 35, submitted 243 hours from Dec. 1, 2025, to Feb. 23, 2026, resulting in $18,000 in false payments, according to Waters.
Cellphone data, including a review by an FBI expert, was also used to show Sosa’s overtime claims were false, investigators said.
Sosa, 39, submitted 147.5 overtime hours from Dec. 9, 2025, to Jan. 23, 2026, resulting in more than $10,700 in overtime pay, the sheriff said.
Rourke was suspended on March 12; Sosa was suspended on March 3; and Bostick resigned on March 3.
Waters said Bostick is expected to turn himself in, and that JSO is seeking to terminate Rourke and Sosa.
Waters clarified that the cases are not connected to Madsen’s case, but were found as part of the follow-up investigation.
“These guys had knowledge that they could do this, and they were taking advantage of the system,” Waters said.
Rourke, Sosa and Bostick’s arrests are the third, fourth and fifth arrests of JSO employees in 2026.
The sheriff said the supervisor overseeing all of these officers, C. Plank, is leaving the agency. He is not under criminal investigation but is the subject of an administrative investigation, Waters said.
Waters said he doesn’t anticipate additional arrests stemming from traffic and overtime misconduct and that the agency is working to prevent this from happening in the future.
“They’re going to have to report to an on-duty supervisor; [the supervisor] is going to have to lay eyes on them, and that is going into policy as we speak,” he said.
But Varner said enforcing this policy will create new challenges for JSO supervisors.
“They may be in one zone, there may be 40 officers working, off-duty work in different areas, so that supervisor is going to have to run to each spot, that’s gonna be kinda complicated,” Varner said.
News4JAX spoke with Bostick back in September 2024 after JSO launched a social media series to address dangerous driving habits.
In 2017, he was involved in a chargeable traffic crash and was the subject of two criminal complaints; one involving “failing to take appropriate action” was sustained.
Rourke had formal counseling twice after an in-house complaint of misuse of computer software and then insubordination and failure to conform to work standards in 2013 and 2019.
Sosa had received informal counseling three times for violating JSO’s body-worn camera policy since 2022 and also had remedial training after a chargeable traffic crash in 2017.
Varner said the recent arrests of the officers send the wrong message about trusting police.
“And we’re held to a higher standard, so naturally, people are going to look at you funny when you get accused and convicted,” Varner said. “It’s embarrassing, it’s a very embarrassing thing.”
Varner said he expects JSO supervisors will also use GPS tracking to make sure an officer is actually working overtime.
Rourke was hired April 27, 2009; Sosa was hired Oct. 19, 2015; and Bostic was hired Aug. 3, 2015.