U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES

GRANT TO THE CITY OF CHICAGO HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS POLICE DEPARTMENT

Award Number 95-CF-WX-1037

Audit Report Number GR-50-98-002

January 8, 1998

AUDIT RESULTS

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of a grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the City of Chicago Heights, Illinois (CHPD) Police Department. The CHPD received a COPS Funding Accelerated for Smaller Towns (FAST) grant in the amount of $150,000 and two Universal Hiring Program (UHP) Supplements, both in the amount of $450,000, respectively, increasing the total award value to $1,050,000 and authorization to hire a total of fourteen entry level police officers. The CHPD was also awarded $97,749 to redeploy 3.9 full-time equivalent officers under the Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE) program. As of June 30, 1997, the CHPD had not requested reimbursements under UHP Supplement 2 and the COPS MORE grant and only eight officers had been hired under the COPS FAST and UHP Supplement 1 grant.

Generally, the CHPD properly implemented the community policing efforts described in its applications. However, the CHPD violated some grant conditions because the CHPD:

- Charged ineligible police officers' salaries to the COPS FAST and supplemental grant. Accordingly, we questioned salaries and fringe benefit costs of $27,028.

- Used an accounting system sufficient for the city's purposes but not for controlling COPS grant costs. The city recorded, accumulated and summarized COPS grant charges and local matching funds with all city expenses. The accounting system did not include a separate category to accumulate and summarize the costs for the COPS grants.

-      Omitted officers' names from the Officer Progress Report.

- Did not submit all of the required Financial Status Reports.

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