A former Platte Woods police officer has been charged in an incident where he allegedly kept drugs collected during the national prescription drug take-back campaign for himself.
Richard Langley
Richard Langley, 46, was charged Thursday, Nov. 1 and remains out on $5,000 bond. Langley — who was employed as a part-time officer in Platte Woods — is next expected to appear in court Tuesday, Dec. 18. He is charged with one count of felony stealing.
According to court documents, detectives started an investigation due to Langley’s request to delete a portion of his dash camera recording from late October. The request and footage were reviewed by another officer, who noticed some suspicious activity. On Saturday, Oct. 27, Langley drove to the Lake Waukomis police station and switched his body camera recorder to audio-only. He could be heard entering the station, rustling bags and rattling pill bottles. The sounds of Velcro could also be heard. About 20 minutes later, he returned to his car and drove back to the Platte Woods police station. In the lot, dash camera footage showed him getting into his personal vehicle with full pockets and exiting it with his pockets emptied. On Tuesday, Oct. 30, he repeated his crime. This time he could be seen picking up bags of medication collected during the prescription drug take-back event, sorting through them, taking some pills and talking to himself. He then took the drugs back to his personal vehicle.
On Thursday, Nov. 1, Platte County Sheriff’s Office personnel searched Langley’s personal vehicle and found a bottle containing 38 hydromorphone pills with the name label removed.