To illustrate this...I’ll point out a story from the 2010 period that came out of the northeast. A small city administrator one day came upon the back of the police department building where a couple of old CPUs and monitors were placed for trash pick-up.
They walked in and found at least a dozen new computers/monitors. This isn’t a big town....their budget isn’t the type that you’d get lost on. So, they asked questions because no allotment for new computers for the police department had been allocated for this financial year.
The front desk person for the cop station responded....they applied (without mayor or council notice) for a Homeland Security grant for new computers, and got the check. They then cashed the check without the city budget office knowing about it, and bought the hardware without the permission of the city council.
Needless to say....this became a topic which the police chief was asked to come and explain at the town council meeting. What the council hinted (don’t know if they followed through on this)....was that they’d make up a rule that any and all applications for any grants...had to have city council participation.
What the council didn’t ask....what else did the cops apply for in terms of grants. I noticed this question was left out and I suspect that if they applied for one grant that easily....they probably put in five or six grants.
I’d take a humble guess that a thousand police departments throughout the US....have acquired grant money and never told their mayor or city council about the funding acquired.
There was a recent incident in New Mexico involving a law enforcement official (cop) stealing boxes of rifle rounds. Small potatoes nationally but made the local news. And it goes on all over the country.