The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), led by Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, has released a report concerning the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) administered by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). The CHP is designed to provide funding to local law enforcement agencies for hiring or rehiring career officers to enhance community policing and crime prevention.
The OIG report highlighted challenges faced by CHP recipients in meeting program requirements related to hiring and retaining officers. It was noted that some applicants submitted inaccurate or inadequately supported information in their applications, which were not consistently flagged by the COPS Office's data validation system for further review.
Key findings from the report include a recommendation for the COPS Office to evaluate the current state of the CHP. "Hiring community policing officers is the fundamental metric of success for the CHP," yet 60 percent of survey respondents indicated hiring was challenging. Additionally, there has been a decline in CHP applications and a shift in program costs to recipients since FY 2012. The OIG suggests that reviewing these issues could benefit the program's continued success.
Furthermore, it was recommended that the COPS Office strengthen its review process for application data. While awards for FY 2021 and 2022 complied with statutory requirements ensuring national fund distribution, inaccuracies in applicant data were not always identified due to shortcomings in automated data validation processes, particularly affecting smaller agencies.
The DOJ OIG made four recommendations aimed at improving management of the COPS Hiring Program, all of which were agreed upon by the COPS Office.
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