Does MCSD reveal employee theft?

If a case of employee dishonesty occurred at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department, am I the only person in the County who thinks it ought to be investigated and publicized?

Let's say that a little hocus-pocus occurred with reporting on time-sheets, and let's say an employee was able to collect a substantial amount of over-time pay. Say, maybe, in the range of $5,-6,000, before he got caught.

If such a theft occurred, shouldn't an outside agency be called in to investigate and, if the facts are substantiated, shouldn't criminal charges be filed? Seems to me that $5,000 would easily fall in the range of a felony.

Isn't the theft of time (wages) just as dishonest as if an employee had walked out with a couple of those Panasonic laptops? You know, the military-grade, $3,500 ones that will survive a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

And if an employee did make off with, say, $6,000, what should happen to him when he is caught? Should he be charged with a felony, stripped of his badge and gun, put on unpaid leave, arrested, jailed? Huh? Like anyone else in McHenry County?

Or should there be a quiet, internal investigation and a 29-day suspension, just under the wire so that the Sheriff doesn't have to take the case to the MCSD Merit Commission, where details would eventually reach an alert public (probably through a blogger), thanks to the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about WWZD. What do you think?