An internal audit of the Hartford Police Department has uncovered that more than 40 percent of the department’s 289 police cruisers are underutilized, and that the city could do a better job filing claims against third parties at fault in police cruiser accidents.
In a review of HPD equipment during Fiscal Year 2005, the audit identified 15 action items where the city needed to improve its overall management of the police department’s fleet of cruisers, including a review of 90 accidents involving police cruisers.
While not “Smokey and the Bandit”-type crashes — the HPD has a policy not to engage in high-speed chases — the audit uncovered lax oversight regarding how multiple city departments manage the HPD fleet, particularly in how claims are filed against third parties at fault to pay for accident repairs.
As a result, the audit concluded that with a more structured and concerted effort, the city would have had a greater potential to collect more than $96,000 owed it for cruiser accidents.
In another matter, the audit found that the police department’s fleet is substantially underutilized. About 40 percent — 127 — of the HPD fleet had either not been driven in over a year, or driven less than 6,000 miles in a year. Forty-eight cruisers had no reported mileage in over a year, 60 averaged less than 6,000 miles per year and 19 had been out of service for four to six months.
Nancy Mulroy, spokeswoman for the HPD, explained that the officers prefer to use the newer cruisers, resulting in infrequent use of older, unsafe vehicles. The decision to sell the older vehicles rests with the Public Works department, she added.
Among the action items, the audit found several inconsistencies in the city’s compliance with its own reporting requirements and a general lack of established policies in how it goes about, and follows through on, collecting money owed the city for cruiser accidents.
Notably, four different city entities must receive reports when a cruiser is in an accident: the HPD; its fleet manager; the Finance Department’s risk management unit; and Public Works’ equipment services division.
The audit found discrepancies in how those accident reports are recorded. Of 90 HPD accidents in 2005, the Finance Department — which pursues claims against third parties — had records of only 69 accidents. In contrast, the Finance Department had records of five accidents that the HPD did not have.
Finger Pointing
That discrepancy is resulting in some internal finger pointing among city departments. Mulroy maintains that the HPD did report all of its accidents to the finance office. She further said that of the audit’s 15 recommendations, just four are the sole responsibility of the police department.
According to Thomas Morrison III, the city’s finance director, the repairs on at least 40 accidents were not reported to insurance companies because of minor damage that was either fixed in-house or for less than $400 to $500.
But the audit further pointed out that there is no policy that determines exactly what qualifies as minimal damage.
Further, when the city’s finance office did pursue claims against 31 third parties, it received payments on 15 of those claims, totaling $39,800. After unsuccessfully attempting to collect more than $90,800 to repair another 13 vehicles, it sent the matters to the city’s Corporation Counsel. However, the audit further pointed out that there was no policy to ensure follow-up by the finance department to determine whether these claims were resolved.
Morrison said that more than half of the 13 cases sent to Corporation Counsel did not have insurance or had very low insurance levels, therefore difficult to collect against.
