Schapiro: Ken's Cops proposal alarms state Capitol

Ken Cuccinelli is a skeptic on climate change. But his proposal to, in effect, create a police department within the attorney general's office is raising the temperature on Capitol Square.

"It's turf, turf, turf," Cuccinelli said of the opposition.

The Republican wants the legislature to allow the 40 investigators in his 83-member Medicaid fraud division to carry guns. They would be issued badges of Cuccinelli's design and — while snooping into misuse of health-care dollars by doctors and nursing homes or abuse of patients — they would watch for, as the bill puts it, "other violations of the laws of the commonwealth."

The sheriffs don't like it; nor do state police. The former, who are independently elected and powers in their own right, aren't afraid to say so. The latter, with a tradition of independence but accountable to the governor and the AG — in this case, that's the aspiring governor — aren't saying anything publicly.

The attorney general's office has had a Medicaid fraud unit for at least 25 years, but it has grown significantly, much as the program that provides health care for the aged and poor has. The division is run by a non-lawyer, Randy Clouse, a former Richmond police detective. He has worked the Medicaid beat since the attorney generalship of Mark Earley, elected in 1997.

To Cuccinelli, the proposal is about common sense.

He says it's an insurance policy for investigators who increasingly spend time in high-crime areas, confronting belligerent people and observing law-breaking that may be unrelated to Medicaid fraud, including drug possession and armed robbery. Further, it brings Virginia in line with the majority of states, 39 of which have all-out Medicaid fraud departments.

To Cuccinelli's critics, the proposal is about his self-importance.

They say it's empire-building, a poke at local and state police, and a weapon, controlled by the attorney general, against political foes. It's part of a continuing trend of extending police powers to those who may really not need them. That includes officials of the Department of Charitable Gaming, the agency that makes sure grandma doesn't get ripped off at the bingo game.

"There are no restrictions," John Jones, lobbyist for the Virginia Sheriffs' Association, said of the legislation creating Ken's Cops. "Think about the political investigation. This has no limits."

That's one of the talking points of Cuccinelli's adversaries, such as Ken Stolle, the state senator turned Virginia Beach sheriff, and Wayne Huggins, the former state police superintendent who lobbies for the long blue-and-gray line as head of the Virginia State Police Association.

Another argument against it is that state police, through the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, investigate suspected fraud. The bureau has 22 accountants and 22 insurance fraud investigators, and though it doesn't routinely look into Medicaid fraud, it is capable of doing so, said Corinne Geller, state police spokeswoman.

To Cuccinelli, this is much ado about nothing.

He said his investigators would restrict themselves to Medicaid fraud. Also, unlike state police, they're familiar with the mountains of data generated by the business of health care. Plus, the program is fully paid for with cash from Virginia's $100 million slice of the 2008 Oxycontin settlement that generated $600 million for Washington and the states.

It's the second time in as many years Cuccinelli has pushed this proposal. A GOP-dominated General Assembly is no guarantee he'll get his way, not with his rival for the gubernatorial nomination, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, perhaps plotting and scheming. Also, the Senate sponsor, Republican Mark Obenshain, is running for attorney general. And lawmakers unfriendly to his candidacy may look to take him down a peg.

The measure is before the House and Senate budget committees, where bills can perish for reasons that have nothing to do with money. The committees possibly will be turned off by the idea of giving Cuccinelli's investigators badges that include the seal of the commonwealth.

Maybe Cuccinelli would insist on covering up the seal's central feature, the bare breast of the warrior-goddess Virtus.