Report 2013-103 Recommendation 20 Responses

Report 2013-103: Armed Persons With Mental Illness: Insufficient Outreach From the Department of Justice and Poor Reporting From Superior Courts Limit the Identification of Armed Persons With Mental Illness (Release Date: October 2013)

Recommendation #20 To: Justice, Department of

To ensure that it makes correct determinations about whether an individual is an armed prohibited person, by January 31, 2014, Justice should implement quality control procedures over APPS unit staff determinations. These procedures should include periodic supervisory review of staff determinations to ensure that staff decisions correctly identify all armed prohibited persons.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2015

The Department added two additional Criminal Identification Specialist (CIS) III positions in the APPS unit to conduct the quality control review of APPS determinations. The quality control review process was implemented for prohibited determinations effective September 2014 and July 2015 for non-prohibited determinations. The CIS IIIs are responsible for reviewing 10% of each analyst's daily prohibited and non-prohibited determinations. The DOJA performs a random audit of no less than 10% of the determinations reviewed by the CIS IIIs.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

The Department added two additional Criminal Identification Specialist (CIS) III positions in the APPS unit to conduct the quality control review of APPS determinations. Both positions were advertised several times, however, only one position was filled as an Out-Of-Class (OOC) Assignment. Some of the hurdles associated with being unable to fill the second vacant position are: lack of interested candidates, lack of well-qualified candidates, and an expired CIS III cert list. The Department will re-advertise the vacant position once a new CIS III exam has been administered in hopes of acquiring a larger well-qualified candidate pool.

The Department advertised the Department of Justice Administrator I (DOJA I) position, conducted interviews, and selected a candidate. The candidate is currently undergoing the DLE background investigation as part of the hiring process.

Effective March 1, 2014, an acting DOJA I was placed in the position and immediately began drafting the quality control procedure. In September 2014, the newly appointed CIS III (OOC) began administering the quality control procedures check.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

In its response regarding the status of its implementation of this recommendation after the state auditor's report was published, Justice asserted that it had fully implemented this recommendation. Based on our review of documentation provided by Justice at that time, we assessed the recommendation as fully implemented. However, during a follow-up audit, which entailed a more in-depth review of actions Justice has taken to address this recommendation, we found that Justice has not fully implemented the recommendation. The state auditor issued its follow-up audit titled Follow-Up—California Department of Justice: Delays In Fully Implementing Recommendations Prevent It From Accurately and Promptly Identifying All Armed Prohibited Persons With Mental Illness, Resulting in Continued Risk to Public Safety(Report 2015-504), in July 2015.

6-Month Agency Response

The Department added two additional Criminal Identification Specialist III positions in the APPS unit to conduct the quality control review of APPS determinations. Both positions were advertised twice with no success in finding an eligible and qualified candidate. These positions will be re-advertised a third time in April 2014 in hopes of filling these vacancies. The Department is also in the process of administering a new Department of Justice Administrator I (DOJA I) exam and it is expected that the open manager position in the APPS unit will be filled after the exam is completed in September 2014.

In the meantime, effective March 1, 2014, an acting DOJA I was placed in this position and immediately began drafting the quality control procedures. These procedures are expected to be tested in May 2014 as part of the review process.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The Department is working to establish additional positions within the APPS unit to conduct the quality control review of APPS determinations recommended in the audit. As of December 16, 2013, the Department worked to establish two new Criminal Identification Specialist III positions to conduct the quality control reviews. The positions were advertised December 18, 2013. The Department is also in the process of backfilling the vacant APPS unit manager. Once the APPS unit manager position is filled, work will begin on developing quality control procedures.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2013-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.