Former DPS supervisor indicted for allegedly stealing from crime lab

PHOENIX – A former Arizona Department of Public Safety employee accused of stealing from the crime lab he supervised has been indicted by a grand jury on three charges.

Todd Whittard, 52, was charged on May 14 with fraudulent schemes and artifices, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of theft and attempt to commit theft, according to the indictment.

An internal audit conducted in the fall of 2018 revealed that items were missing from the firearms section of the DPS crime lab, according to a Monday press release from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Additionally, a DPS employee gave investigators information about suspicious activities in the lab.

Whittard, who allegedly took numerous rifle magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, was arrested April 30 following an investigation that included surveillance.

On the day of his arrest, Whittard was seen carrying a bag of items from the lab’s storage facility to his truck, authorities said.

He resigned from his job overseeing lab units that dealt with fingerprints and firearms two days later. He’d worked for the agency for 25 years.

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