Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Grants to the Omaha, Nebraska Police Department
GR-50-00-009
January 14, 2000
Office of the Inspector General
The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of grants awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to the Omaha, Nebraska Police Department (Omaha PD). The purpose of the grants is to enhance community policing. The Omaha PD was awarded a total of $7,369,497 to hire 55 full-time and 16 part-time police officers and redeploy the equivalent of 116.8 existing full-time officers from administrative duties to community policing.
We reviewed the Omaha PD's compliance with eight essential grant conditions. We found the grantee's practices for budgeting, hiring, and local matching funds to be acceptable. However, we found weaknesses in five other areas as identified below. As a result, we question $585,589.
These items are discussed in greater detail in the Findings and Recommendations section of the report. Our audit objectives, scope, and methodology appear in Appendix I.