For Years, UT-Dallas Instructors Told Officers to Skip Class — and the Cops Got A's. How Did It Go on So Long?

UT Dallas criminology professor Robert Taylor helped develop the master's degree program at the center of a UT System investigation last year. The review found he and two other instructors awarded credits and top grades to police officers for course work they never took. They deny wrongdoing. [University of North Texas at Dallas.]

The criminology professor was on the trail of a possible fraud. Even more troubling, it was happening inside his own school.

The first clue: A student told him he had permission to skip classes yet still get credit. Then, when the professor tried to verify the story with his bosses, they bristled.

“You need to be careful what questions you ask,’’ said one.

“It sounds like you’ve been stirring s---,’’ said the other.

Those encounters, described in an investigative report, led the professor at the University of Texas at Dallas to blow the whistle on what the school provost said may amount to academic fraud.

A Texas university program gave police officers top grades for classes they never took, Dave Boucher reported.