U.S. Department of Justice

Audit Report

OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES

CITY OF LUBBOCK, TEXAS

AUDIT REPORT NUMBER

GR-80-97-001

JANUARY 24, 1997

AUDIT RESULTS

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the City of Lubbock, Texas. The City received a grant of $596,154 to hire or rehire eight additional sworn police officers under the Accelerated Hiring, Education, and Deployment (AHEAD) program. The purpose of the grant is to enhance community policing efforts.

Generally, the City of Lubbock (City) properly managed the COPS grant. Specifically:

- Costs charged to the AHEAD grant were allowable and in accordance with grant requirements. As of December 6, 1996, the City had requested reimbursement of $157,107 (or 68 percent) of the allowable costs chargeable to the grant.

- Budgeted funds for police services and the number of City police officers budgeted increased since FY 1994, the year before the beginning of the grant. In addition, the City appeared to be making a good faith effort to fill officer vacancies timely.

- The City had submitted its Financial Status Reports to the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) in a timely manner.

- Funds provided under the grant were used to enhance community policing efforts. The Lubbock Police Department has embraced the community policing concept and was actively training patrol officers in community policing. In addition, the Lubbock Police Department has been successful in implementing specific community policing techniques that support the City's neighborhood associations.

However, we found the following weaknesses with regard to meeting the conditions of the grant:

- Neither the Department Annual Report nor the Officer Progress Reports were submitted to COPS.

- Financial Status Reports submitted to OJP reported incorrect total program costs.

- Additional steps are needed to further improve the Lubbock Police Department's relationship with the City's neighborhood associations in order to meet the community policing goals described in the City's grant application.

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