An audit that focused on how the Clark County Sheriff’s Office handles its high-risk equipment and supplies found areas that need improvement, including how the agency handles some of its firearms and practice ammunition. The report recommended that the sheriff’s office make changes to its inventory and training practices.
The Clark County Auditor’s Office analyzed the agency’s storage and inventory procedures for equipment including firearms, ammunition, ballistic vests and portable police radios. The audit topic was chosen because of county-wide concerns voiced by public works, facilities and general service employees; results of similar audits in other jurisdictions; and because no local audit has addressed the topic in more than 10 years, according to the document.
The audit was performed between December 2014 and June 2015 and the process included review of regulations, research of best practices, interviews and a physical count of all weapons and ammunition.
“I’m very pleased with the audit,” Sheriff Chuck Atkins said. “It’s something we wanted to see if there was any areas of improvements.”
The report revealed the agency was “ineffective” in accounting for individually distributed practice ammunition, recommending that the agency either make substantial improvements or end the program.
The agency uses practice ammunition in two ways. Some ammunition is used for a firearms training program, which takes place on a shooting range and with an instructor. The rest is used in the practice ammunition program, where rounds are individually issued to deputies who request them in order to help maintain and improve their shooting skills.
“Because they were not using the inventory technique correctly, we were unable to determine how much ammunition of any type should have been on hand,” the audit read. For the individual training program, the sheriff’s office has “distributed hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition of the past decade with no documentation for how it was used, stockpiled or redistributed outside the organization.”
The individual practice ammunition program is not well-controlled, lacks clear guidance and procedures, and has no measurable outcome, the audit states.
About 250 deputies participate in the program, at an annual cost of between $100,000 and $150,000, with no demonstrated added benefit for the expenditure, according to the audit.
The report recommended the agency enforce stricter controls for the program or end it.
Talks ongoing
Atkins, who became sheriff in January, said that the program was a result of a collective bargaining agreement struck years ago between management and the deputy sheriff’s guild.
His recommendation, he said, is to amend the program to have deputies come to a shooting range to receive ammunition, but that the issue is in the midst of being worked out.
“That way, we’d then have a range master trainer there, and if there are any issues, we can turn it into an instructional time as well,” he said. “We’re negotiating right now with the executive board of the deputy sheriff’s guild. We’re really close to a resolution.”
The storage facility that houses the high-risk equipment had effective physical security, such as keys and a security system, as well as adequate controls for computer systems and databases, according to the auditors.
And while duty weapons have good internal controls, safety measures and inventory of seized weapons and other items were “moderately effective,” the audit reported.
For example, three of 20 seized firearms were not in an inventory record system, 13 of 286 ballistic vests were expired and a test sample showed that one portable radio and one ballistic vest could not be located, according to the audit.
Atkins said the redundancies in the inventory system were resolved and the unaccounted-for items have since been located.
The audit also found that the firearms in long-term storage are at an elevated risk of loss or misuse, as the equipment is only checked annually.
“I believe the audit findings are valid concerns and the recommendations to improve our processes are reasonable,” Atkins wrote in a letter to the auditor’s office. “I will direct my staff to make the necessary changes in procedures to bring our processes into alignment with currently accepted practices as they relate to internal control of high-risk equipment and supplies.”
The report noted that the logistics staff at the sheriff’s office experienced 80 percent turnover last year, but that the current staff was cooperative and open to improvement.
“I appreciate the constructive attitude Sheriff Atkins and his organization have demonstrated,” County Auditor Greg Kimsey said in a press release. “We have worked closely with them to add value and reduce risk to the public, their employees and the county.”
The audit will be the focus of an open meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday on the sixth floor of the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St.
