Law Enforcement Vehicles

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the utilization of vehicles by law enforcement agencies, focusing on: (1) the number, cost, age, and mileage of vehicles used by the Department of the Treasury's law enforcement agencies, including those used for home-to-work transportation; (2) relevant legislation and agency policies; and (3) implementation of the legislation and policies at the national level and at one field office of each agency.

GAO noted that: (1) agencies' policies are governed by 31 U.S.C. 1344, which authorizes transportation between home and work when it is essential for the safe and efficient performance of law enforcement duties; (2) it also requires that agencies maintain logs or other records; (3) Treasury drafted implementing regulations in 1988; they are expected to be issued in final this month; (4) each of the four Treasury agencies has specific policies concerning assignment of vehicles to law enforcement officers for official use only and for home-to-work transportation, but only Customs Service and the Internal Revenue Service policies require maintenance of logs or other records; (5) all agencies have delegated to field offices the responsibility for monitoring the use of law enforcement vehicles; and (6) none of the agencies maintains logs of the vehicle use; they instead rely on other records, such as signed certifications by employees or the files on cases to which the employees were assigned.