N.C. trooper’s 180-mile daily commute cost taxpayers thousands

A state trooper violated agency rules by using a highway patrol car to make the roughly 90-mile commute from his home to his duty station, the North Carolina state auditor’s office has found.

That cost state taxpayers more than $9,400 in excess fuel and maintenance costs, the auditor’s investigation found.

The trooper, an administrative First Sergeant for the Highway Patrol’s inspections and compliance unit, lived in Elizabethtown and commuted to his station in downtown Raleigh without proper authorization, according to the auditor’s report. The drive was between 86 and 89 miles each way.

The sergeant, who was not identified in the report, drove the excess distance on an almost daily basis in 2015, the report said.

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