U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

 

Audit Report

 

OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS, BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE

POLICE HIRING SUPPLEMENT GRANT TO THE CITY OF OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT CALIFORNIA

 

GR-90-98-030

 JUNE 1998

   

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, completed an audit of a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), to the City of Oakland Police Department (OPD), California. The OPD received a grant of $1,687,684 to hire 16 additional police officers under the Police Hiring Supplement (PHS) program. The purpose of the grant was to enhance community policing efforts.

We found the following weaknesses during our audit regarding the grant conditions:

- 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. 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 sworn officers at the conclusion of the PHS grant funding.

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