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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
Report No. 2005-10
February 2005
The following problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Department of Public Safety, Police Officer Standards and Training program.
The Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) program was established in 1978. The Department of Public Safety manages the POST program as established by state law and by the rules and regulations of Missouri's Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission as specified in Chapter 590, RSMo. The department is responsible for licensing and regulating peace officers, continuing education providers, training instructors, and training centers; establishing a classification system for licenses; establishing minimum standards for peace officers and for admittance into basic training; and developing the Missouri Peace Officer License Exam. As of June 30, 2004, there were approximately 650 law enforcement agencies and about 18,000 licensed peace officers.
Various tests conducted during the audit noted at least 75 of the 645 (12 percent) law enforcement agencies had not complied with one or more of the following state laws related to the Peace Officer Standards and Training Program (POST):
Our audit also found that program officials do not perform periodic criminal history background checks on active peace officers. Therefore, POST is not aware of some criminal activity that occurred after the officers' initial application for training.
We requested the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) perform criminal background searches for approximately 18,000 peace officers currently licensed and eligible to work as a peace officer. The MSHP identified a total of 480 open and closed criminal offenses on their records for these officers. We eliminated offenses that were more than 10 years old, those with dropped charges, and those officers who were acquitted, resulting in 92 open and closed criminal offenses to be reviewed. As of September 24, 2004, POST was not aware of 9 of 49 open offense crimes and 13 of 43 closed offense crimes.
State law prevents POST program officials from revealing employment history to prospective law enforcement agency employers. To help ensure local law enforcement agencies access to previous peace officer employment, POST officials should be allowed to inform prospective employers of past employment.
Annually, POST sends out a listing to all local enforcement agencies showing the officers working for that agency according to POST records. The CEO of each agency is supposed to verify that the list is correct, make any necessary changes, and return the listing to POST. However, as of February 2004, we found that 203 of 645 (31 percent) CEOs had not returned the May 2003 listing. In addition, 67 CEOs had not returned the affirmation listing for at least 4 years.
POST personnel initiate investigations when they learn of alleged actions of peace officers that could lead to discipline. POST personnel learn of these actions through phone calls from private citizens and law enforcement officials, through media reports, and through departure forms submitted by law enforcement agencies. Our review of procedures and management systems to track complaint investigations noted the following concerns:
POST does not have written guidelines regarding discipline.
