Fayetteville Police Department announced the arrest at 11:30 a.m. At 1 p.m., Chief Kemberle Braden held a news conference where he identified the officer and explained the charges.
Braden said the officer was charged and arrested on 12 felony counts of fraud.
Fayetteville police officer arrested on charges of fraud
Court documents accuse Sgt. Brian Gerber of lying about showing up to work at another company as a security guard. Investigators said these efforts fraudulently racked up about $20,000 for Gerber.
In one instance, Gerber reportedly showed up for about 6 minutes of work and got paid for more than 20 hours.
"The Fayetteville Police Department is willing and able to hold itself accountable when it's necessary," Braden said.
The documents said Gerber was working as a security officer for the AMC theater at the Market Fair Mall on Skibo Road.
Fayetteville Police Department caught onto what was going on when an audit found inconsistencies in Gerber's GPS data.
"To me, the definition of ethics is the expectations or the code of conduct placed on you based on your role, title, position or profession," Braden said. "There are certain things that the average person can probably do and get away with that we can't allow our police officers to do and get away with."
Gerber had been with the department since 2017 and served in the patrol division.
Braden said Gerber is no longer employed by the Fayetteville Police Department. This is the third officer arrested since Braden took over as police chief in 2023.
This is the third time in the past year that Fayetteville Police have arrested one of its own officers. In October, Izreal Gear-Johnson, 23, was arrested after Braden said he was accused of being involved in "illegal narcotics activity." In November, Tamyra Billings-Giles, 31, was arrested and on various charges.
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