An Internal Affairs investigation found that a Columbus police deputy chief falsely stated that an officer was not on overtime when he wrote parking tickets to unmarked police vehicles parked outside police headquarters, but he did not intentionally deceive the assistant chief in a follow up phone call.
Elrico Alli, a deputy chief since 2023, was put on leave in February amid accusations that he lied to First Assistant Chief Lashanna Potts regarding an officer writing parking citations in January for unmarked police vehicles near the police division's headquarters, according to records released by Columbus police. Portions of Marconi Boulevard parking near headquarters are designated for police vehicles only.
Potts learned of the tickets and asked
Alli to investigate and find out if the officer who was seen writing the citations was on overtime, records state. Potts wrote in her complaint that the parking enforcement officers' use of overtime is under increased scrutiny because the 2025 overtime costs for Traffic Operations were 200% over what was budgeted.
During a Feb. 9 executive staff meeting, Potts asked Alli about the incident. According to the records, Alli told Potts the officer wrote the tickets on his own, not at the direction of a supervisor. Alli also said the officer was not on overtime and gave the same answers to Chief Elaine Bryant when she asked Alli.
Two days later, Deputy Chief Robert Sagle approached Potts and said he had reviewed the department's time management system and found the parking officer had, in fact, been on overtime. A sergeant approved the overtime, which was identified as being for "parking enforcement at HQ," on Jan. 23, the day after the officer wrote the tickets, records show.
Sagle also told Potts he had sent a screenshot of the officer's overtime approval to Alli during the Feb. 9 meeting. On Feb. 11, Potts called Alli, according to her complaint, and asked again about whether the officer's overtime was approved or had been initiated by a supervisor, records state.
"Deputy Chief Alli advised me that absolutely not and that no overtime was approved or initiated," Potts wrote in her complaint.
Potts asked the department's Internal Affairs Bureau to investigate if Alli was being untruthful or if other department policies were violated. The ensuing Internal Affairs investigation found that he did make a false statement to Potts during the Feb. 9 meeting regarding whether the officer was on overtime, but the investigation did not find evidence that he was being untruthful during the Feb. 11 phone call with Potts. The report states there was no evidence that Alli knew that the officer was on overtime when he spoke with Potts.
"It has never been my intent to deceive [Potts] or to give any untruthful statements, or to have any type of deceit in any of the information I have been given," Alli wrote in the report.
The investigator reviewed approximately 1,700 emails, more than 300 text messages, and conducted 20 interviews during the investigation.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Probe finds Columbus police deputy chief not untruthful despite false information
