Post-Award CHRP Grant Record-Keeping Tips

The following are suggested tips concerning documentation that should be maintained in your grant file.


GRANT PROGRAM___CHRP_________GRANT # ______________________________________

GRANT AWARD START DATE_____________ORIGINAL AWARD END DATE____________

EXTENDED AWARD END DATE (if applicable)________________________
									
     •  COPY OF GRANT APPLICATION
								
     •  COPY OF GRANT AWARD DOCUMENT						

     •  FINANCIAL CLEARANCE MEMO
	
     •  GRANT AWARD MODIFICATION APPROVAL LETTERS (w/ Revised Budget Information) AND/OR GRANT EXTENSION APPROVAL LETTERS (if applicable)
							
     •  QUARTERLY FINANCIAL STATUS REPORT – SF-269A (for each quarter of the grant period)

     •  PROGRAMMATIC PROGRESS REPORTS 
	• CHRP Progress Report(s) (for each quarter of the grant period)
	• CHRP Recovery Act Reports
	• Closeout Reports

     •  SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION FOR DRAWDOWNS
	• W2 Employee Forms (Copy)
	• Records of salary / approved fringe benefits rates for each person hired under the grant  
	• Records of hire dates for each person hired under the grant
	• Payroll records / Time & attendance records
	• Postal receipts / FAX transmission reports (to prove submission dates)
	• Log of reimbursement requests made via PAPRS 
	• Copies of checks or wire transfer documents (if applicable)
	• Copies of financial office journal entries (if applicable)

     •  ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION FOR REHIRES
	• Records of the date of lay-off(s)
	• Records demonstrating the reason(s) for the lay-off(s), specifically showing fiscal reasons that are 
	  unrelated to the availability or receipt of CHRP funds.  [Records that may be used to prove that scheduled 
	  lay-offs are occurring for local economic reasons that are unrelated to the availability of CHRP grant funds 
	  may include (but are not limited to) council or departmental meeting minutes, memoranda, notices, or orders 
	  discussing the lay-offs; notices provided to the individual officers regarding the date(s) of the lay-offs; 
	  and/or budget documents ordering departmental and/or jurisdiction-wide budget cuts.]
	• Records demonstrating that your agency continued funding the officers with local funds until the date of 
	  the scheduled lay-offs and did not draw down on CHRP funding for the positions until the lay-offs otherwise 
	  would have occurred.
	• Records demonstrating that your agency paid any higher-than-entry-level salary and benefits costs to rehired 
	  officers with local funds and used CHRP funds only for the approved entry-level salary and benefits package.

     •  SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION FOR RETENTION
	• Records (e.g., council meeting minutes) demonstrating that your agency plans to retain.
	• Personnel records (e.g., employee action forms) with the employment dates of each officer.  
	  [If a position becomes vacant during the grant and/or retention period, your agency must maintain 
	  records of the employment dates of any new officer(s) hired to fill the position.]
	• Records demonstrating that your agency took timely and active steps to fill all vacancies occurring 
	  during the retention period in accordance with the agency’s standard hiring practices and procedures.
	• Records demonstrating the date each officer position was retained with local funds and that each position 
	  was retained with local funds for at least one year (12 months) following the 36-month grant period.

     •  GRANT CORRESPONDENCE (All other general correspondence between COPS and grantee)

     •  MEDIA REPORTS									
	[Newspaper clippings, magazine articles, certificates, and/or other noteworthy items should be included to 
	illustrate achievements and successes of the grant program, such as community policing highlights and other 
	grant-related accomplishments.  In addition, any CDs, DVDs, electronic newsletters, brochures, web site 
	addresses, and/or other similar information published in connection with the grant should be referenced.]

In the event of a COPS grant monitoring review, the following information should be retained:

Reduction-in-Force Review
	• The number of sworn officer positions (both full-time and part-time) funded in the agency’s budget with local 
	  or other non-COPS funding during each fiscal year as of the threshold review date (please note that this may 
	  include vacant but funded positions).
	• Identify the current number of vacancies among the agency’s locally-funded sworn personnel, the dates on which 
	  the positions were vacated, whether the agency intends to fill the vacancies, and the steps, if any, which have 
	  been taken to fill the vacancies.
	• Provide supporting documentation from the time the reduction-in-force occurred indicating the reason(s) for the 
	  reduction-in-force (examples of supporting documentation may include minutes from council meetings, budget directives, 
	  contemporaneous memoranda, etc.).
	• Identify the number of COPS-funded officers the agency currently employs. 
	• Documentation regarding whether other local departments in the city/township have experienced similar manpower or 
	  budget reductions for the same reasons as the PD.
	• Letters from the agency’s Government Executive and Law Enforcement Executive explaining the reduction-in-force and 
	  addressing whether the reduction-in-force was unrelated to the receipt of COPS CHRP funding and therefore would have 
	  occurred even in the absence of the CHRP grant.
	• Provide a request to continue implementing all applicable COPS grants (identifying which grants are in place) 
	  despite the reduction-in-force.

Failure to Retain Review
	• Evidence to show that attempts have failed to add the COPS-funded positions to a request for local funding during 
	  local budget negotiations; attempts have failed to obtain other non-federal funding sources (such as state grants, 
	  for example) to support the additional positions at the termination of the COPS grant; and attempts have failed to 
	  seek additional law enforcement funding from private sources, including corporate, non-profit, and foundation 	  donations or grants. 

	• Documentation of any of the following mitigating circumstances that may have hindered agency attempts to implement 
	  the retention plan:

	Evidence to show that the jurisdiction has been declared bankrupt by a court of law; jurisdiction has been placed in 
	receivership, or its functional equivalent, by the state or federal government; jurisdiction has been declared a 
	financially distressed area by its state; budgetary imbalance or expenditure cutbacks resulting in significant reductions 
	in other services provided by the agency or significant lay-offs of the agency’s personnel; extraordinary and unanticipated 
	nonrecurring expenses and/or loss of revenue (including closure or relocation of major employers) resulting in a material 
	effect on the jurisdiction’s fiscal condition; significant downgrading of the jurisdiction’s bond rating for fiscal-related 
	reasons; filing for bankruptcy, receivership or similar measure, with the request for relief pending; location within an 
	area in which a declaration of major disaster has been made pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 
	Emergency Assistance Act; and/or other events or conditions demonstrating severe fiscal distress.

	Excess Cash Review
	• Identify the total amount of grant funding drawn down from the grant.
	• Summary and supporting documentation of how the agency expended grant funding.
	• Revised Financial Status Reports.

	Unallowable/Unsupported Costs Review 
	• Payroll ledgers for all expenses charged to the grant.

	Community Policing Review
	• Brochures, newsletters or any documents detailing the agency’s community policing efforts as 
	  specified in your grant application, particularly in the following key areas:
	• Organizational Commitment
		- Community policing principles found in mission and values statements, policy and 
		  procedures manuals, etc. 
		- Community policing training information from the academy. 
	
	• Problem Solving Activities
		- Building on information systems to enhance crime analysis capabilities.
		- Identifying crime problems by looking at crime trends.
		- Identifying crime problems with members of the community or other government agencies.
		- Preventing crime by focusing on conditions that lead to crime.

	• Community Partnerships
		- Meetings with community members to learn about specific problems.
		- Locating offices or stations within neighborhoods.
		- Use of volunteers.
		- Providing community policing training to citizens.
		- Police participation in community organization working groups and/or special programs for schools 
		  and other interest groups which enhance crime prevention.




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