The Police Department bends its rules to get family and friends on the force.

For example, the literacy requirement was overlooked when Dalton Carty was made a forensics detective and photographer in the St. Thomas Investigations Bureau.

The Police Department employed Carty for years as a civilian photographer. He was well-liked, and his photo work was respected. His many friends among the officers wanted to get him on the force.

But Carty can barely read or write. High-ranking police officers and a prosecutor confirm that.

Carty dismisses the charge, saying that he just has a bad handwriting and that he can indeed read.

He has a high school diploma. But officers who were at the Police Academy with him say he was allowed to graduate without fulfilling the requirements.

Sgt. Liston Gumbs, supervisor of the Forensics Division, was an academy classmate of Carty's. He confirms that Carty did poorly.

Carty's literacy level was an issue in several investigations. A former forensics supervisor, Sgt. Antoinette Jackson, says Carty did forensics work in rapes and burglaries, but he could not write a report without help.

Carty was the first detective on the scene of the notorious multiple rape of tourists at the Elysian Beach Hotel in 1989. He never filed a written report, just made an oral report. Nobody has ever been charged with the rapes.

Earlier this year Carty was transferred from forensics to the School Safety Division.