INTRODUCTION

Background

In 1994, the President pledged to put 100,000 additional police officers on America's streets to promote community participation in the fight against crime. He subsequently signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Crime Act), authorizing the Attorney General to implement over six years an $8.8 billion grant program for state and local law enforcement agencies to hire or redeploy 100,000 additional officers to perform community policing.

The Attorney General established the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to administer the grant programs and to advance community policing across the country. Management of the COPS grants entails both program and financial management. The COPS Office is responsible for: (1) developing and announcing grant programs, (2) receiving and reviewing applications, (3) deciding which grants to award, and (4) monitoring programmatic issues related to grants. OJP is responsible for financial management of the COPS program and is charged with: (1) reviewing pre-award and post-award financial activity, (2) reviewing and approving grant budgets, (3) providing financial management assistance after COPS has made an award, (4) disbursing federal funds to grantees, and (5) financial monitoring of COPS awards.

COPS and OJP established the following major hiring or redeployment grant programs to meet the President's goal. Hiring grants fund the hiring of additional police officers and generally last for three years. Redeployment grants are generally one-year grants and fund the costs of equipment, technology, and support resources (including civilian personnel) to free existing officers from administrative duties and redeploy them to the streets. At the end of the grant period, the state or local entity is expected to continue funding the new positions, or continue the redeployment of officers to community policing that resulted from grant funded equipment or technology purchases.

• Police Hiring Supplement (PHS). In 1993, prior to passage of the Crime Act, Congress provided funds for the PHS program, a competitive program awarding grants directly to law enforcement jurisdictions to hire additional officers. This program, administered by OJP, provided almost $150 million as a "down payment" towards deploying 100,000 additional police officers to the streets. One-half of the PHS funds were designated for jurisdictions with populations of 150,000 or less and one-half for jurisdictions with populations above 150,000. These grants were to fund the hiring of approximately 2,000 officers and deputies. The positions are counted toward the 100,000 officer goal. Grants are no longer awarded under this program.
  
  
• Phase I. In October 1994, the COPS Office awarded its first $200 million in grant funds, as directed by Congress, to applicants not funded under the PHS program. The COPS Office awarded Phase I grants to 392 state, municipal, county, and tribal law enforcement agencies. These grants were to fund the hiring of approximately 2,600 additional officers and deputies. Grants are no longer awarded under this program.
  
  
• Accelerated Hiring, Education, and Deployment (AHEAD). This program was first developed in 1994 and provided funds to law enforcement agencies serving populations of 50,000 or more. COPS AHEAD permitted agencies to begin recruiting and hiring new officers immediately in anticipation of subsequent COPS grant funding. Applicants were required to submit a "Letter of Intent to Participate" to COPS. Under COPS AHEAD, approximately $283 million in grants to policing agencies were to fund the hiring of approximately 4,000 additional community policing officers. Grants are no longer awarded under this program.
  
  
• Funding Accelerated for Smaller Towns (FAST). This program was developed by COPS in 1994 to simplify the application process for jurisdictions serving populations of less than 50,000. Law enforcement agencies in these smaller jurisdictions were required to initially submit only a one-page, fill-in-the-blank application form to apply for a grant. Under COPS FAST, approximately $394 million in grants were to fund the hiring of more than 6,000 officers and deputies. Grants are no longer awarded under this program.
  
  
• Universal Hiring Program (UHP). This program is open to all law enforcement agencies, regardless of the jurisdictions' population. All hiring grants awarded after FY 1995 are made under this program. Only agencies that have not received another COPS hiring grant are required to submit the UHP application. Under the UHP, recipients of COPS FAST and COPS AHEAD grants are required to submit only a UHP Officer Hiring Request form and revised budget information to be considered for a grant. According to COPS, as of February 1999, more than $3 billion in UHP grants were awarded to fund the hiring of approximately 42,000 officers and deputies. Grants are still being awarded under this program.
  
  
• Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE). The COPS MORE grant program is designed to expand the time available for community policing by current law enforcement officers, rather than fund the hiring of additional officers. This program is open to all law enforcement agencies, regardless of the population of their jurisdictions. Grants are awarded for up to 75 percent of the cost of equipment and technology, support resources (including civilian personnel), or to pay overtime.⁵ For each $25,000 in federal funds received, agencies must redeploy the equivalent of one full-time sworn officer to community policing. The first grants were awarded in FY 1995. According to COPS, as of February 1999, approximately $967 million in grants were awarded under the MORE program to fund the redeployment of 35,852 officer full-time equivalents. Grants are still being awarded under this program.

Grant requirements are contained in an "Owners Manual" for each type of COPS hiring and redeployment grant. The applicable manuals are provided to each grantee receiving a grant and are also posted on the COPS' internet site. We group COPS criteria into the following categories:

• Accounting Systems. Recipients of COPS' funding are required to establish and maintain an adequate system of accounting and internal controls to ensure proper accounting of funds awarded. These records should identify both federal funds and the matching funds of state, local, and private organizations. The accounting system should: (1) present and itemize approved costs of salaries and benefits of officers (or equipment for MORE grants) and show the actual costs of salaries and benefits (or equipment for MORE grants), (2) assure responsible use of grant funds, (3) assure that funds are spent in conformity with grant conditions, and (4) be able to provide the necessary information for periodic review and audit.
  
  
• Requests for Federal Share. Recipients of COPS' funding are allowed reimbursement for only costs previously approved by OJP. The costs should be reasonable in nature and permissible under the specific grant conditions. Costs that are deemed allowable are different for hiring and redeployment grants. For hiring grants, allowable costs include the salaries and approved benefits for three years of sworn entry-level career law enforcement officers. Up to 75 percent of the entry-level salary can be paid by award money, with local funding to pay the remaining portion of the salary and fringe benefits. Costs above the entry-level salary may not be paid from grant funds. For redeployment grants, allowable costs include the salaries, including approved benefits, for civilian hires and the costs of technology and equipment that have been approved by OJP.
  
  
• Officer Redeployment. The MORE program's goal is to fund technology or civilian employees to reduce the amount of paperwork and administrative tasks performed by trained officers so that they can spend more time on the street engaged in community policing activities. Grants awarded under MORE are restricted to the purchase of technology, equipment, and the hiring of support resources (civilians) that will increase the number of sworn officer positions, or full-time equivalents (FTEs), engaged in community policing activities within the agency's jurisdiction. The use of MORE funds must result in an increase in the number of officer FTEs deployed to community policing. Recipients of MORE grants are required to develop a plan to calculate and track time savings for redeployment realized from the equipment, technology, and civilians funded by the grant.
  
  
• Supplanting. The Crime Act requires COPS grants to supplement, not supplant, state and local funds. Simply defined, supplanting is the use of federal funds to replace local funds. Guidance from COPS states:

  COPS grant funds must not be used to replace funds that eligible agencies otherwise would have devoted to future officer hiring. In other words, any hiring under the COPS program must be in addition to, and not in lieu of, previous hiring plans.

  COPS guidelines require that grantees continue to hire as many new, locally-funded officers as it would have absent receipt of the grant. Grantees must also take positive and timely steps to fill any vacancies created on or after the grant award. Failure to hire the required number of officers is a potential indicator of supplanting. For example, the following practices would likely be regarded as supplanting:

  (1) A department with vacant positions at the start of the grant period, or at any time thereafter, either hires no new officers other than COPS grant-funded hires or does not timely replace locally-funded vacancies created by attrition.

  (2) Grant funds are used to replace, or to allow the reallocation of, funds already committed in a local budget for law enforcement purposes.

• Officer Retention. Grantees must retain officer positions for a minimum of one full budget cycle after the budget cycle in which COPS funding ends.⁶ Recipients of COPS' funds are required to plan to retain the additional positions funded by COPS grants or continue the redeployment of officers that resulted from grant funded equipment or technology purchases. Retention planning for hiring grants must demonstrate that "a sincere and legitimate attempt" was made by the law enforcement agency and by the governing body to secure and provide local funding to employ the additional officer positions at the conclusion of the grant period. The same retention planning is needed for securing civilian positions through MORE grant awards. Retention planning for MORE funded technology and equipment is demonstrated through "a sincere and legitimate attempt" to secure local funding for equipment upgrades and maintenance.
  
  
• COPS Monitoring Reports. To assist COPS in monitoring grant activities, grantees are required to periodically report to COPS on the status of their hiring or redeployment efforts. The type of progress report depends on whether the grant is for hiring or redeployment. An Initial Report is required only if the recipient has never previously received a COPS hiring grant. This report solicits information regarding pre-grant data, which serves as a baseline for measuring the grantee's future progress in community policing. Information gathered includes the number of officers authorized by the grantee for the FY prior to the beginning of any COPS grants, training curriculum, demographics of the grantee's police force, and community policing activities.

  Grant recipients are required to complete and submit an Annual Department Report updating the information reported in the Initial Report. The Annual Department Report should demonstrate whether the grantees decreased the number of locally funded positions after receiving the COPS grants. By reviewing these reports, COPS can identify potential supplanting issues needing further study. In addition, recipients are required to submit a Hiring Officer Progress Report that solicits specific information pertaining to the officers hired under the COPS Hiring grants. Information gathered includes demographic information on the officers, duties and responsibilities of the officers, and dates of key events (such as date of hire, graduation from academy and when training began and concluded). Recipients of MORE redeployment grants must submit the MORE Annual Progress Report that requires the grantee to provide information about the increased levels of community policing that have resulted from the purchase of equipment and/or the hiring of civilian personnel funded under the COPS MORE grant program.

• OJP Financial Status Reports. To assist in monitoring grant financial activities, OJP requires grantees to submit quarterly financial status reports. The Financial Status Report is required for both hiring and redeployment grantees. This report requests information on monies spent, the breakdown of federal and local matches, and the unobligated amounts. The Financial Status Reports are necessary for OJP to monitor key grant conditions, especially the condition that grantees reduce the federal share percentage claimed each year of the grant. This grant condition exists so grantees will absorb more of the costs each year, making them better able to fund retention of the officers after the grants expire.
  
  
• Community Policing Activities. The COPS Office policy is to allow the local law enforcement agencies to determine its community crime-related problems and the policing that will solve them. Prior to receiving a COPS grant, the law enforcement agency fills out an application ranking its major public safety issues, providing information about its community policing goals, and listing the proposed activities of the new officers it plans to hire with the grant funds. Any significant changes to the community policing activities identified in the grant application must be submitted in writing to the COPS Office for approval. The COPS Office is responsible for determining the applicability of grant awards to the community policing activities that are identified in grant applications.

According to COPS, as of February 11, 1999, COPS and OJP had awarded approximately $5 billion in grants under the six major hiring and redeployment programs to fund more than 92,300 officers, of which about 50,139 officers had been hired and deployed to the streets. The following charts illustrate the officers funded and dollars awarded.

The COPS Office may have a continuing grant-making role beyond its goal of deploying 100,000 new officers by 2000. In his FY 2000 budget request, the President proposed a "21st Century Crime Bill" that includes $1.3 billion for Fiscal Year 2000 and $6.375 billion over the next five years "to help communities build on their successful efforts begun under the COPS program" by adding an additional 50,000 officers by 2005. The 21st Century Policing Initiative is intended to help communities hire, redeploy, and retain officers; give law enforcement access to the latest crime fighting technology; and engage the entire community in preventing and fighting crime.

Whether or not the 21st Century Policing Initiative is approved, a considerable amount of funds may be left over from the 1994 Crime Act authorization. Of the $8.8 billion authorized by the Crime Act, COPS estimated that $7.345 billion would be required to award grants to hire 97,920 officers for an average of $75,000 per officer. OJP's $150 million Police Hiring Supplement Program was to fund 2,080 officers toward the goal of 100,000 officers. As of February 1999, COPS and OJP had awarded approximately $5 billion in grants to hire or redeploy 92,324 officers at an average cost of $54,256 per officer. If the lower cost per officer trend continues, the total cost required to fund the 107,019 officers through FY 2000 would be approximately $5.8 billion. As such, almost $1.7 billion authorized under the Crime Act may not be needed, and could be used to help fund the 21st Century Community Policing Initiative if approved by Congress.

Prior Reports

The COPS program has been in existence since 1994. During this time, numerous audits and reviews have evaluated the program and have reported significant findings. Most of these audits and reviews were financial statement audits issued by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). For the prior reports issued by the OIG, the report recommendations are resolved when the audited agency agrees to implement corrective actions. The recommendations are closed when the audited agency provides the OIG with documentation indicating that corrective actions have been implemented. All of the recommendations in the OIG's prior reports are either resolved or closed. Synopses of the significant findings and recommendations from the prior reports, and the status of corrective actions for the recommendations in the OIG reports, are contained in Appendix IV.

In April 1999, we issued a report summarizing the results of 149 audits of COPS grantees that we performed during fiscal years 1997-98 (See "Police Hiring and Redeployment Grants: Summary of Audit Findings and Recommendations, October 1996 - September 1998 (No. 99-14)).⁷ A response by the COPS Office and OJP to the OIG’s summary report was included as Appendix V. At the time the summary report was released, the OIG was in the final stage of completing this program audit of the COPS Office’s management of the $8.8 billion COPS grant program. Findings from the 149 individual grantee audits contributed to several of our findings and recommendations in this program audit.

The COPS Office strongly disagrees with our reliance on individual grantee audit reports and our interpretation of these findings in this program audit. Specifically, the COPS Office asserts that we misinterpreted and/or misapplied the COPS Office’s compliance standards in the areas of supplanting, retention, community policing, and redeployment. We dispute the COPS Office’s disagreements with our audit findings and this dispute is now the subject of an ongoing audit resolution process chaired by the Deputy Attorney General.

Consequently, we are releasing this program audit and note the COPS Office’s strong disagreement with many of the findings in individual grantee audits that contributed to findings in this program audit. The COPS Office’s response to this program audit can be found in Appendix V. The OIG’s analysis of COPS’ response can be found in Appendix VI. A further discussion of these disagreements also can be found in the previously cited Summary Audit Report and appendix.

Updates on the resolution process may be contained in the OIG’s semiannual report and the Attorney General’s Management response.

⁵ Use for overtime was allowable for the 1995 MORE grants and unallowable for subsequent MORE grants.

⁶ COPS retention requirements have evolved. According to COPS, the PHS and Phase I grants did not formally require retention. The COPS AHEAD, FAST, UHP, and all MORE grants required applicants to plan in "good-faith" for continuation of the program following the conclusion of federal support; however, the retention period was not specified. In our judgment, however, the intent of the overall program appears to be that all officer positions should be retained. In August 1998, COPS established a policy that grantees are only required to maintain the COPS funded officer positions for a minimum of "one budget cycle" after the budget cycle in which COPS funding ends (i.e., usually one year). COPS obtained approval for the policy from the Attorney General. Before obtaining approval from the Attorney General, COPS asked the OIG for comments on the proposed retention policy. We recommended that COPS require grantees to retain the positions for a minimum of three years, the term of the original hiring grants.

⁷ The results of the 149 audits appear in Appendix III. They are discussed throughout this report, but principally with respect to Finding III. We continue to perform additional grant audits as our resources permit.

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