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Controller finds procedural weaknesses in SFPD evidence handling and overtime pay; department outlines fixes
Summary
The controller's city services auditors reported packaging, recordkeeping and system-security weaknesses in SFPD property control and identified $252,000 in monetary evidence held longer than policy allows. The overtime audit found documentation lapses and examples of work-hour violations; SFPD described immediate fixes and a plan to resolve holds and update access controls. The committee continued the audits for follow-up.
The committee heard a detailed briefing from the controller—s city services auditors on two recent reviews of San Francisco Police Department operations: an inventory audit of monetary evidence held by the property control unit and an audit of overtime and premium pay.
Mark Tipton of the controller—s office said auditors accounted for the department—s monetary evidence envelopes and found the property control inventory largely traceable to records, noting 7,225 envelopes physically present and 75 that auditors determined had been properly checked out. Tipton said more than one-third of envelopes lacked required sealing or dual signing and that the department—s property evidence tracking system (PETS) is an older mainframe system that does not allow updates to the dollar-value field, which can make printed system totals inaccurate.
The audit found about $252,000 in monetary evidence that had been held longer than the department—s stated 15-month holding period; the auditors recommended clarifying packaging procedures, improving system security controls and adopting stronger segregation of duties.
An SFPD representative acknowledged the findings and described immediate steps taken: a departmental bulletin requiring supervisor concurrence and dual-signing for monetary evidence submissions, limits on PETS-terminal access and a three-person team assigned to resolve hold cases and process deposits. The department said the team was depositing $10,000—$20,000 per month as it worked through backlogged holds and that some system fixes await a decision on implementing a new records-management system (the "New World" upgrade), which is currently on hold pending evaluation.
Tipton also summarized an overtime audit that found shortcomings in documentation and policy compliance for court appearance pay, acting assignment pay and 10B police-service overtime; auditors sampled files and found instances where officers exceeded safety-limiting work-hour thresholds (examples included officers working more than 14 hours in a 24-hour period and more than 20 hours of voluntary overtime in seven days). The auditors also identified a $37,000 department-wide overpayment related to the uniform allowance.
Supervisors asked for clarity on what the department had done to implement auditor recommendations. SFPD officials described access-control changes to PETS terminals and said many of the controller—s 19 recommendations were in progress; the department also said it planned to coordinate with POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) to align further audit work. Supervisor Chiu moved to continue the audit item to the call of the chair and requested a follow-up at which the department would report implementation status of the recommendations. The committee agreed to continue the item without objection.
