The Board's Law Enforcement Unit Could Benefit From Enhanced Oversight and Controls to Ensure Compliance With Applicable Regulations and Policies

Finding 4: The LEU Does Not Have Sufficient Controls to Ensure That Firearms Eligibility and Use of Force Forms Are Signed and Retained

We found a lack of documentation indicating that officers had signed the Statement of Eligibility to Possess Firearms form and the Use of Force Policy Review and Acknowledgement form on an annual basis. The General Orders requires that officers sign and date these forms on an annual basis to certify that they are eligible to possess a firearm and that they understand the Use of Force Policy. The Training Bureau did not have sufficient controls to ensure that these forms were signed by officers and retained within the bureau. Without annually signed and dated forms on file, the LEU cannot be certain that officers are eligible to possess a firearm and that they understand the Use of Force Policy.

Lack of Evidence That Officers Consistently Signed Firearms Eligibility and Use of Force Forms

According to the General Orders, officers must sign the Statement of Eligibility to Possess Firearms form and the Use of Force Policy Review and Acknowledgement form each year. Typically the LEU obtains these signed forms during in-service training. By signing a Statement of Eligibility to Possess Firearms form, an officer affirms that he or she

• has not been convicted of a felony in any court
• is not a fugitive from justice
• is not an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance
• has not been determined by a court to be mentally incompetent or has not been committed to a mental institution
• is not illegally or unlawfully in the United States
• has not been discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions
• has not renounced his or her U.S. citizenship
• is not subject to any court order that restrains him or her from harassing, stalking, threatening, or engaging in other conduct involving the use or attempted use of physical force or threatened use of a deadly weapon by a current or former spouse, a current or former partner, or a parent or guardian of the victim
• has not been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence

During our review of training records for the 50 officers in our sample, we found a lack of evidence that officers signed the required Statement of Eligibility to Possess Firearms and Use of Force Policy Review and Acknowledgement forms. Table 2 shows the number of instances in which either a signed Statement of Eligibility to Possess Firearms form or a signed Use of Force Policy Review and Acknowledgement form was not on file in the Training Bureau.

Table 2: Number of Officers Without Signed Forms on File, 2010-2012

Year	Statement of Eligibility to Possess Firearms form	Use of Force Policy Review and Acknowledgement form
2010	1	1
2011	3	10
2012	8	1

Source: OIG review of LEU training records.

Although we did not find signed forms for these officers, we reviewed additional records and determined that these officers had completed the in-service training when these forms would have been signed. The Training Bureau should have effective controls to ensure that these forms are signed and dated as required by the General Orders.

Recommendation

We recommend that the Chief of the LEU

10. Ensure that a signed Statement of Eligibility to Possess Firearms form and a signed Use of Force Policy Review and Acknowledgement form are obtained annually from all officers and retained by the Training Bureau.

Management’s Response

The Director of the Management Division concurred with our recommendation. In his response, the Director stated that controls have been strengthened for obtaining officers’ signatures on the firearms eligibility and use of force forms and retaining these forms in the Training Bureau. A new form was developed and is provided to each officer during in-service training, and controls have been strengthened to ensure that these forms are “signed, collected, and scanned into a single repository” and reviewed annually for compliance. Management’s full response is included as appendix B.

OIG Comment

In our opinion, the actions described by the Director of the Management Division address our recommendation. We plan to follow up on actions taken by the LEU to ensure that our recommendation is fully addressed.