SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Paul Helring, age 48, a former Scranton police officer and the former elected police union president, was sentenced on June 4, 2024, by United States District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani to 6 months’ imprisonment and a 2-year term of supervised release for the offense of Theft Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, from approximately March 2021 to May 2022, while serving as the coordinator of Scranton Police Department’s extra duty overtime program, Helring knowingly obtained by fraud over $5,000.00 in compensation that was paid to him for certain extra duty patrol shifts at local, Scranton-area, lower-income housing complexes that Helring claimed to work but did not in fact work.  In all, the investigation found a total of 526 hours that Helring claimed to work patrolling the complexes but that he did not actually work.  At his sentencing, Helring was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $17,831.40 and to pay a fine of $5000.00.  He was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service as a condition of his supervised release.   

 This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Public Corruption Task Force with assistance from the Office of Inspector General within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Assistant United States Attorneys Jeffery St John and Phillip J. Caraballo prosecuted the case.