U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES

GRANTS TO THE CITY OF HAMMOND, INDIANA, POLICE DEPARTMENT

Grants 95CCWX0248, 95TCWX1095, and 96CMWX0583

Audit Report Number GR-50-98-011

March 31, 1998

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the City of Hammond, Indiana Police Department (HPD). HPD was awarded $350,000 under COPS Accelerated Hiring, Education, and Deployment (AHEAD) to hire 5 officers, and $350,000 under the Universal Hiring Program (UHP) to hire 5 officers. In addition, HPD was awarded $151,946 under the Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE) to hire 4 civilian personnel to replace and allow redeployment of the same number of officers. HPD was awarded an additional $10,000 under a TROOPS TO COPS grant to train two recently separated members of the armed forces as law enforcement officers. These officers were hired under the COPS AHEAD grant. The purpose of the additional officers is to enhance community policing efforts.

In brief, our audit determined the following:

- The number of officers performing community policing activities did not increase by the number of positions funded under the AHEAD, UHP, and MORE grants. As a result, we questioned reimbursements of $53,916.

- Budgeted, rather than actual costs, were submitted for officer and civilian positions. Accordingly, we questioned salaries of $1,780.

- The City of Hammond did not adequately establish and maintain a system of budgeting and accounting for COPS grant expenditures.

- Financial Status Reports were not submitted timely.

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