Police Forces in the District of Columbia Can Improve Operations and Save Money

Gao ID: GGD-79-16 July 12, 1979

Four District police forces were reviewed, the Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Park Police, the Capitol Police, and the Metro Transit Police. The forces need to improve their patrol practices and certain inefficient and costly practices.

Park and Metropolitan police officers patrol the same areas in some District locations because of overlapping jurisdictions. In addition, because Metropolitan and Park forces each maintain their own photography and fingerprinting facilities, they sometimes unnecessarily repeat identification processing of arrestees. Police officers perform clerical, administrative, technical, and protective duties, which lower cost civilians and guards could do. The forces could save as much as $3.1 million annually if civilians and guards were used instead of sworn officers. Finally, sometimes the police forces buy weapons which are being stockpiled by other forces or purchase items which could have been bought at reduced prices from the General Services Administration (GSA).

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Arthur R. Goldbeck Team: General Accounting Office: General Government Division Phone: (202) 275-3641


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