Audit Report on the Internal Controls of the Police Department over Handgun Licensing

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) License Division determined whether the NYPD maintains adequate controls over the collection of handgun licensing fees. It also determined whether the NYPD maintains adequate controls over the issuance, renewal, and cancellation of handgun licenses.

The License Division’s internal controls over the issuance of new handgun licenses and the renewal of handgun licenses are adequate, despite a lack of written policies and procedures. In addition, the controls over safeguarding, issuing, and accounting for blank licenses are adequate.

The internal controls over the collection of handgun licensing fees are generally adequate. However, there is a lack of segregation of duties in the Cashier’s Unit of the License Division that needs to be addressed to prevent the possibility of misappropriation of fees collected.

Although controls over the issuance of handgun licenses are adequate, they are inadequate and inconsistent over the cancellation of those licenses. In addition, we found 160 individuals on the Social Security Administration (SSA) deceased list who remained listed in the Automated License Processing System (ALPS) as having an active license.

Overall, the License Division has no written policies and procedures. In their absence, some tasks may not be properly communicated and consistently followed. Also, there is no assurance that new personnel will have adequate guidance in carrying out their assigned tasks.

To address these issues, we make 12 recommendations, namely, that the NYPD License Division should:

• Develop a comprehensive policies and procedures manual that addresses all internal processes and functions throughout the License Division, and distribute the manual to appropriate departments and personnel.
• Include in its written policies and procedures all steps necessary to cancel and finalize licenses. Those procedures and policies should be distributed among the appropriate staff.
• Continue its efforts to ensure that all handguns associated with previous and current canceled licenses are accounted for in a timely manner and the information is entered in ALPS.
• Ensure that the appropriate staff performs all necessary tasks involved with canceling and finalizing licenses.
• Assign personnel to clear up the backlog of canceled license information by entering and recording all necessary information in ALPS and the logbooks.
• Include in its written procedures specific steps for handling surrender notices to help employees record and track surrender notice information in a consistent and standardized manner.
• Ensure that surrender notices are issued for all canceled licenses that require them.
• Establish and implement a system to track and follow up on surrender notices on a regular basis.
• Consider computerizing the surrender notice logbooks, which would eliminate the need to maintain two logbooks.
• Contact the SSA and establish a procedure that periodically compares death records to the NYPD listing of active licensees.
• Segregate the duties of collecting, recording, and reconciling the handgun licensing fees among several employees.
• Contact the program vendor and explore the possibility of making changes in ALPS so that the system: (1) can avoid cancellations made in error by either removing the mass cancellation function or by making it inoperable; (2) can print letters that include accurate information and; (3) has specific fields within the cancellation screen to enhance the surrender notice process by capturing pertinent information.