Federal Audit Puts DeKalb County Police Funding Into Question

After an audit from the Office of the Inspector General with the U.S. Department of Justice, officials have found the amount of funding given to the DeKalb County Police Department to be a result of inflated crime statistics.

According to the audit’s findings, data from the county police department’s grant applications and financial reports were not sufficiently supported, leading the federal agency to question $2,329,659 of allocated funds. In their inquiry, they deemed $4,435 spent on salary and benefits unallowable and identified $783,186 of unused funding that will be put to better use.

The most drastic example of inaccuracy in their grant applications is the reported 11,807 aggravated assaults in 2008, while investigators determined the accurate number to be 1,183. While this was the largest discrepancy observed in the department’s audit, data in each category was inflated.

DeKalb County Commissioner Kathie Gannon told WSB-TV “there were some administrative errors filling out that form.”

In his official response to the audit, Interim Chief of Police James Conroy wrote that “each of the recommendations in the report has [sic] already been addressed by the adoption measures to further ensure mistakes are not repeated.”

Investigators composed a list of recommended changes for the department, including establishing a procedure to prevent further discrepancies as well as reallocating or remedying the grant funds deemed unallowable or for better use.

Patch file photo

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