U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

 

Audit Report

 

OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES

GRANT TO THE CITY OF OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT CALIFORNIA

GR-90-98-029

JUNE 1998

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of one grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the City of Oakland Police Department (OPD), California. The OPD received a grant of $1,275,000 to hire or rehire 17 sworn officers under the Accelerated Hiring, Education, and Deployment Program (AHEAD). The purpose of the additional officers under the grant program is to enhance community policing efforts.

In brief, our audit determined that the OPD violated the following grant conditions:

- The OPD did not notify the COPS program of their decision to modify the AHEAD grant by hiring only 13 of the 17 officers authorized. The OPD made this decision because it could not provide the necessary matching funds. Therefore, the COPS program should deobligate $300,000 for the four positions the OPD decided not to fill under this grant and put the funds to better use.

- The OPD did not fill sworn officer vacancies timely because the OPD required approximately nine months to hire and train new officers and the limited number of academy classes conducted by the OPD was inadequate to fill the sworn officer vacancies. The problem of filling sworn officer vacancies in a timely manner was further compounded by a city imposed hiring freeze in FYs 1995 and 1996.

- The OPD did not have a formal plan to retain the officers hired under the AHEAD grant.

#####