U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of the Community Oriented Policing Services

Grants to the Belle Glade, Florida, Police Department

Grant Numbers 95-DM-BX-0127 and 96-CM-WX-0787

GR-40-98-004

January 1998

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of three grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the Belle Glade, Florida, Police Department (BGPD). The BGPD received a grant of $596,104 to hire or rehire six more sworn law enforcement officers under the Phase I program and $35,101 to redeploy six officer full-time equivalents (FTEs) under the Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE) program. Also, COPS had awarded, but the BGPD had not accepted, a $450,000 grant under the Universal Hiring Program (UHP) to hire or rehire six more officers. The purpose of the extra officers is to enhance community policing efforts.

In brief, our audit determined that the BGPD:

- did not enhance community policing efforts as described in its applications, and accordingly, we question the total amount ($631,205) of the grants awarded to and accepted by the BGPD.

- claimed $8,452 under the MORE grant for computer equipment which the use of would not result in the redeployment of officers into community policing.

- supplanted Federal funds of $215,615 under the Phase I grant and $8,700 under the MORE grant.

- had not developed a plan to retain grant-funded officers after the grants expire.

- incorrectly reported the number of sworn officer positions as of October 1, 1994 on the Department Initial Report submitted to COPS.

- had not submitted two Financial Status Reports (FSR) to the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and submitted five FSRs late.

- incorrectly reported the total program outlays and Federal share of outlays on the FSRs.

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