SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A new report from the Auditor of the State of California questions whether the San Diego County Sheriff's Department has implemented recommendations outlined in a previous audit.
The report "Recommendations Not Fully Implemented After One Year" presented the status of recommendations that are more than one year old and have not been fully implemented by the audited entities.
According to the report, a 2017 audit about Concealed Carry Weapon Licenses, made several recommendations regarding the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's program.
The recommendations included, "To ensure that it follows state law's requirements for revoking licenses, San Diego should immediately revoke CCW licenses and should then inform Justice that it has revoked licenses whenever license holders become prohibited persons. Additionally, San Diego should notify Justice when it suspends a license, or a license is surrendered."
The 2017 audit also recommended, "To ensure that it maximizes allowable revenue from its CCW program, San Diego should immediately pursue increasing its initial, renewal, and amendment fees to the maximum amounts allowable under state law."
According to the Auditor's newly released report, the estimated date of completion of those recommendations is unknown.
10News contacted the San Diego County Sheriff's Department to ask about the status of the recommendations. It turns out the Sheriff's Department did make changes.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the department wrote: "In 2017, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department was made aware of the findings and recommendations by the State Auditor from the report on Concealed Weapons Licenses. The recommendations that were suggested were taken into account and changes were implemented in 2018. The changes reflected all of the recommendations except for the proposed increase of fees. The Sheriff's Department did not agree on placing a high fee that would otherwise prevent the issuance of a CCW for a qualified and genuine necessity solely because of financial hardship. The adjustment of those fees is now mandated by the state with the passage and implementation of Assembly Bill 1297 this year. Sheriff's Financial Services is currently looking at our business practice for reviewing the fees collected. That fee will ultimately need to be approved by the Board of Supervisors."
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department is the local agency tasked with approving or denying CCWs.
Team 10 previously reported about a spike in CCW permits.
In 2017, the department approved 171 licenses. In 2018, the department approved 707, a more than 300 percent increase from the year before. In the first seven months of 2019, the department has already authorized 767.
