U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Audit Report

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

Grants to the

Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department

California

GR-90-99-006

December 1998

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of four grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department (CCCSD), California. The CCCSD received a grant of $1,646,955 to hire 18 deputy sheriffs under Phase I and $750,000 to hire 10 deputy sheriffs under the Universal Hiring Program (UHP). The CCCSD also received a supplemental UHP award of $375,000 to hire 5 deputy sheriffs under the first supplemental UHP award (UHP I). In addition, the CCCSD received $1,777,480 to redeploy 71.1 deputy sheriff full time equivalents (FTEs) into community policing under the Making Officer Redeployment Effective program (MORE 96). The purpose of the additional officers under each of the grant programs is to enhance community policing efforts.

In brief, our audit determined that the CCCSD violated the following grant condition:

• The CCCSD generally was not in compliance with grant reporting requirements. The CCCSD did not submit two Financial Status Reports (FSRs) for the UHP grant and two FSRs for the MORE 96 grant. Three FSRs for the Phase I grant, two FSRs for the UHP grant, and one FSR for the MORE 96 grant were submitted late. The Department Initial Report overstated the number of sworn deputy sheriff positions in the CCCSD. In addition, the CCCSD failed to submit the November 1997 Progress Report for the MORE 96 grant.

These items are discussed in detail in the Findings and Recommendations section of the report. Our scope and methodology appear in Appendix II.

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