The Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller contracted with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting to conduct a performance audit of the Los Angeles County Probation Department’s (Probation Department) hiring and grant administration activities. The audit found that during the two-year period, Fiscal Years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, the Probation Department’s sworn hiring processes were generally well organized, documented, and complete and Probation made strides in improving some process efficiencies. During this period, the Probation Department increased its hiring efforts, which resulted in an increase in the number of new hires during Fiscal Years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 over prior years. These efforts, however, were not enough to actually increase the number of active sworn officers employed by the Probation Department, which equaled 4,183 in Fiscal Year 2011-2012 and dropped each successive year to 4,041 in Fiscal Year 2014-2015. In addition, the audit found that the Probation Department was under-utilizing state and federal funding intended to support key programs and operations.
The full report can be found here.
