Audit Follow-Up Audit Report On The Case Management Practices Of The Civilian Complaint Review Board

Audit Report In Brief

This is a follow-up audit to determine whether the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) has implemented the two recommendations made in the Audit Report on the Case Management Practices of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (ME06-060A), issued on June 30, 2006.  The CCRB is an independent mayoral agency that was created in 1993.  Under Chapter 18-A, §440(a), of the New York City Charter, the CCRB is authorized to investigate complaints concerning misconduct by City police officers.  The Board, composed entirely of civilians, forwards its findings and recommendations to the New York City Police Department.

The previous audit concluded that while the CCRB ensured that a high percentage of its cases were completed in a timely manner, many case files lacked required investigative case plans and time-triggered progress reports.  In addition, some of the plans and progress reports that were prepared lacked supervisory reviews.  The audit recommended that the CCRB ensure that every investigation have an approved investigative case plan, as outlined in its procedures, and ensure that all required time-triggered progress reports be prepared and reviewed, as outlined in its procedures.  According to the Mayor’s Management Report, the CCRB received 7,488 complaints and closed 7,588 cases in Fiscal Year 2008.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

Of the two recommendations we made in the previous audit, the CCRB implemented one and partially implemented the other.  In this follow-up audit, we noted marked improvement since our previous audit regarding completion and supervisory review of investigative case plans and time-triggered progress reports in our review of sample case files.  The use of automated e-mails to remind investigative team management of cases requiring investigative case plans and progress reports appears to have been a generally effective tool for ensuring the completion of investigative case plans.  However, the overall compliance rate for time-triggered progress reports began to decline in May 2008.

While examining the implementation status of the recommendations presented in the previous audit, we found that the CCRB Complaint Tracking System (CTS) has some weaknesses.  For instance, CTS does not require users to change access passwords periodically, it does not capture on a separate field whether a case plan or progress report has been reviewed by a supervisor, and the date fields automatically entered by the system can be altered during the investigations.

Audit Recommendations

To address the issue that still exists, we recommend that the CCRB should:

• Resume monitoring compliance rates on a regular basis to ensure that investigative staff are abiding by the established procedures regarding completion of case plans and time-triggered progress reports.

• Ensure that team managers are aware of their teams’ compliance rates for investigative case plans and time-triggered progress reports.

To address new issues, we make the following recommendations.  The CCRB should:

• Implement access controls for CTS that require users to change passwords periodically and that automatically lock out a user after a predetermined number of failed attempts to gain access.

• Enhance application controls to ensure the accuracy and reliability of CTS data.

• Enhance CTS by enabling it to capture and report whether investigative case plans and time-triggered progress reports have been reviewed, as required by internal procedures.

Agency Response

In its written response, CCRB generally agreed with four of the five audit recommendations but disagreed with the audit’s methodology and findings.  After carefully considering CCRB’s arguments, we found them to be without merit.