Today the Inspector General issued his final report on our sheriffs and their excessive spending.
According to the Inspector General, “the lack of a common understanding among sheriffs, lawmakers, and the Executive Office of Administration & Finance (A&F) on such foundational ideas as the role of the sheriff, what the state covers for mandated programs … has resulted in uncontrolled spending with little to no oversight. To put it in sheriffs’ terms, it’s a bit like the wild west.”
Here are a few highlights from the 190-page report.
Private Bank Accounts for Public Funds:
The Inspector General writes, “[m]y biggest concern going forward is the use of private bank accounts operating outside the oversight of the Commonwealth Treasurer and Comptroller. In this report, we have documented over 120 bank accounts that had over $42 million of expenditures during FY25 and held balances of over $36 million at the close of FY25.
Civil Process Departments and Their Budgets
The sheriff departments’ civil process divisions serve court documents on litigants, seize property, and occasionally make civil arrests.
In the report, the Inspector General notes, “[a] second significant concern is civil process operations. The OIG found that sheriffs’ interpretation on of the civil process statute differs between offices and that there are inconsistent practices in remitting civil process fees to the Commonwealth’s General Fund. Let me be clear, monies collected by a public agency – taxes, fares, fees, fines – are public monies and must be treated as such.”
Scope of Sheriffs’ Law Enforcement Role
According to the report, “[t]he scope of the sheriffs’ work is both vast and limited. An outdated enabling statute, along with a collection of General Laws and session laws that grant the sheriffs narrow law enforcement authority, has been interpreted in different ways by each sheriff. Some sheriffs’ offices have expanded their law enforcement role without legislative authority to do so, resulting in budget strains and overspending, and in some cases have duplicated services already provided by other agencies.”
To view the full report, click the file below.