Former Des Plaines Police Commander Charged with Falsifying Records

The following information was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Charges are not evidence of guilt and do not indicate a conviction.

A former Des Plaines police commander has been charged with falsifying records to obtain grant funding for overtime pay following an investigation by the city, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Wednesday.

Timothy Veit, 55, of Mount Prospect, a 31-year law enforcement veteran, is accused of inflating the number of DUI arrests that would qualify for the federal funds from 30 to 152, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, between 2009 and 2012.

Veit was charged with one felony count of making false statements, the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated. A date has not been set for his arraignment in U.S. District Court.

Veit retired from the Des Plaines Police Department in April 2012, and the Illinois Department of Transportation stopped the grant from being funded.

Journal and Topics Newspapers reported , in connection with the city’s investigation into the grant records.

Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner said that number was inaccurate, and 13 officers faced discipline. Kushner said he would make a public statement about the discipline when the time was right.

Veit was the project director for the police department’s participation in a traffic enforcement program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated, which had a performance objective for law enforcement to arrest, on average, at least one person for driving under the influence during every 10 hours of overtime officers worked during specific, qualifying hours.

Accurate information was given to Veit from Des Plaines police officers about DUI arrests, according to the charges.

“The charges allege that he then intentionally inflated the number of DUI arrests and provided false information about blood-alcohol content levels in reimbursement forms,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated.

The false information Veit provided, according to the charges, caused a loss of $132,893 in federal funds that were reimbursed to Des Plaines for impaired driving enforcement programs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated.

Making false statements carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.