Former Shreveport Police Lieutenant sentenced for wire fraud

A former Shreveport Police officer has been sentenced on one count of wire fraud in federal court Thursday, May 16.

According to the United States Attorney's Office, Jeffrey L. Peters, 55, was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $13,084.

On Jan. 12, 2024, Peters pleaded guilty to actions while employed as a Lieutenant with the Shreveport Police Department.

While working Peters was allowed to work overtime on the Community-Based Crime Reduction (CBCR) Program, which is a grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that pays officers at 1.5 times their normal hourly rate for overtime worked.

According to the attorney's office, between January 2020 and January 2021, Peters and a fellow supervisor, James Cisco, devised a scheme to defraud the Shreveport Police Department by claiming overtime for hours they had not worked.

Peters and Cisco would each fill out and sign a Report of Overtime which stated they worked a specific time and date on the CBCR grant. Peters, in his role as Cisco’s supervisor, would certify that Cisco had actually worked the dates and times listed on the Report of Overtime.

Peters would also create and submit an activity report which would falsely state that he and Cisco were doing patrols in District 3, an area around police Headquarters. On these reports, Peters and Cisco were the only officers listed.

Neither Peters nor Cisco were working overtime for the police department.

It was reported that Peters submitted false Reports of Overtime and Activity Reports on over 50 dates falsely claiming he worked overtime that he had not. Peters received a total of $13,084.74 in overtime that he was not entitled to receive.

Cisco was also charged in connection with this case and was sentenced to one year of supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,681.29 and a fine in the amount of $2,500.

Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.