Moving in the direction ‘we have to go’
San Luis police making fixes recommended by audit, acting police chief tells city council
SAN LUIS, Ariz. – This city’s police department has resolved or is acting on more than 100 observations cited in a recent performance audit of the department, acting police chief Richard Jessup says.
Jessup appeared this week before the San Luis City Council to give a status report on efforts to carry out the recommendations that came out of the audit done by LD Consulting, LLC. The city contracted the firm to do the audit shortly after Jessup assumed the helm as interim chief a year ago.
“We are moving in the direction that we have to go,” Jessup told the council. “Having 129 observations in an audit does not necessarily mean that things are bad, but rather they are things that are suggested that we can do to be consistent with best practices.”
Jessup said the department is putting into practice recommendations in six areas reviewed by the consultant, including evidence storage. He said the department immediately acted to strengthen controls in the evidence room after the audit found that 3,907 items previously stored there could not be accounted for.
Jessup said the next step is to make a complete inventory of items placed in evidence over the years. That would need to be done by a contracted firm with expertise in evidence storage, he said, otherwise four police employees will be tied up full time over four months doing the inventory.
He added, however, that the fact the items weren’t accounted for doesn’t mean they were lost, but rather that they weren’t properly recorded. The items may have been recovered property that has since been returned to the owners, or evidence from crimes that was destroyed once it was no longer needed.
The evidence unaccounted for includes six weapons, and Jessup again said those items may only have been improperly recorded when placed in evidence.
The audit, one in early 2018, also found that vacancies in existing positions in the department left it understaffed. Jessup said the hirings of five new employees have since brought the police department to full strength.
In response to a deficiency cited in the audit, the department has developed a policy and procedures manual for its K-9 unit, said Jessup, who presented a copy of the manual to council members.
Among other steps it is taking, the department is also developing a form for recording cases of use of force by officers, so that each of the cases can be properly reviewed after the
fact, he said.
Jessup said the department will comply fully with a recommendation to eliminate the rank of corporal in the department hierarchy. The audit found that the duties of those positions duplicated those done by sergeants. Jessup said the department’s current corporals will be reassigned as sergeants.
He said the department will be able to carry out several other recommendations in the audit once it completes a current task to update its policies and procedures manual. Jessup recommended that the manual be updated annually to comply with changes in law and changes in generally accepted police practices.
The department, Jessup said, may need another two years to address all the observations or deficiencies cited in the audit. And he said the council would need to earmark additional money in the police budget to make some of the recommended fixes, such as an improved camera surveillance system and an alarm to prevent contamination of biological evidence in the evidence room, upgraded recording equipment for the 911 emergency system, and improved equipment for officers.
San Luis Mayor Gerardo Sanchez termed as positive the steps being taken by the police department to meet the recommendations. And he said he was pleased with the efforts given that city officials can find no reports from any previous audits done of the department. But he conceded that recordkeeping in city government was lax at times in the past.
“When (the police department) moved from the old building to the new one, there was no documentation. There’s no record that an audit was ever done. For example, when I came in as mayor, records of the history of San Luis were found in boxes filled with termites. Since then, (employees) have been organizing them and they’re still not finished. The same thing happened with the police department.”