Union City's $2.3M Police Grant: 98% Came Back Unsupported
Summary
The Justice Department's Inspector General tested every dollar Union City, New Jersey had spent under two federal police-technology grants -- $1,730,190 as of July 2025 -- and could not verify $1,696,808 of it, or 98 percent. The unsupported amount includes computer-aided dispatch software and mobile data terminals bought off state contracts the city couldn't produce, plus CCTV cameras added to an existing system without competitive bidding. Those cameras cover a city of about 80,000 people policed by roughly 200 officers -- and auditors found some of the footage goes dark exactly when investigators need it.
Two grants, one city, one test
The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) awarded Union City⧉ two Technology and Equipment Program grants: $1.1 million in September 2022 and $1.2 million in September 2023, $2.3 million combined. The money was meant to add closed-circuit cameras to the city's existing surveillance system, buy mobile data terminals for patrol cars, and replace dispatch software -- equipment for a police department of about 200 sworn officers covering roughly 80,000 residents packed into 1.3 square miles, one of the densest cities in the country. By July 2025 the city had spent $1,730,190 of the two grants, and the tested every dollar of it.
Where the paperwork broke down
The equipment itself exists -- physically inspected it with Union City police officers on site. What failed was documentation. For the 2023 grant, Union City bought $923,950 in dispatch software, mobile data terminals, and computing devices by "piggybacking" on contracts the State of New Jersey had already negotiated, a purchasing method state law permits. But when asked Union City to show its purchases matched those state contracts' items and prices, the city could not produce the underlying contracts⧉ -- officials said they don't routinely make that comparison, and the city's procurement manual doesn't require it.
For the 2022 grant, Union City spent $772,858 adding CCTV cameras to a system it had built before the grant existed, awarding the work to the same vendor without competitive bids. asked for records showing that earlier system's procurement had complied with federal rules, so it could confirm the new cameras' items and prices matched. The city couldn't provide them⧉. Combined, the two failures account for the entire $1,696,808 classifies as unsupported -- money that may have been spent properly, but that the city cannot prove was.
Cameras that go dark when it matters
The report's sharper finding isn't paperwork. During a site visit, Union City police officers demonstrated the city's video management system for -- and video from some cameras wouldn't play. Officers blamed wireless interference and network capacity issues⧉, and told auditors "there have been instances when recordings were unavailable for criminal investigations that occurred near a camera." Union City never reported the problem to the COPS Office: during the audit, officials said they omitted it because they were already working with the vendor to fix it; in its formal written response, the police department went further, saying it didn't consider the issue a reportable "challenge"⧉ at all -- even though the standard COPS Office progress report specifically asks grantees to disclose barriers to their goals.
View data as table
No inventory, no conflict policy
found two more structural gaps. Union City had no property-management system tracking the cameras, terminals, and software it bought -- and had never conducted the physical equipment inventory federal rules require at least once every two years. And the city had no conflict-of-interest policy in place at all when these contracts were awarded, though OIG found no evidence any conflict actually occurred⧉. It wasn't the department's first paperwork problem: in August 2024, the COPS Office separately caught Union City sitting on $45,000 in excess grant cash from miscoded transactions; the city returned $15,930 of it six months later.
- $1,696,808 of the $1,730,190 in Union City COPS grant spending tested -- 98 percent -- has no procurement documentation the city could produce.
- The unsupported total splits almost evenly: $923,950 in state-contract equipment, $772,858 in sole-sourced CCTV cameras.
- Officers told some camera footage has been unavailable for actual criminal investigations -- and the city never disclosed that to its federal grantor.
- The COPS Office concurred with all eight recommendations; as of the report, none is closed and Union City has yet to produce the missing records.
did not allege fraud. In written responses attached to the report, Union City and its police department said they will update their procurement manual, adopt a conflict-of-interest policy, and bring in a new inventory-appraisal firm in 2026. Each of the eight recommendations stays open until the COPS Office confirms the city has followed through -- including producing the missing $1.7 million in documentation or repaying it.
Sources(3) ▾
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, Audit of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Technology and Equipment Program Grants Awarded to the City of Union City, Union City, New Jersey (Report 26-052) (2026-05-13) — performance audit testing whether costs Union City claimed under two FY2022 and FY2023 COPS Technology and Equipment Program grants (awards 15JCOPS-22-GG-01523-TECP and 15JCOPS-23-GG-04420-TECP) were allowable, supported, and compliant with procurement rules, and whether the city made adequate progress toward the grants' goals. Scope: March 2022 through July 2025; the tested the entire $1,730,190 in expenditures recorded under both grants as of July 2025, physically inspected grant-funded equipment on site with Union City police officers, and reviewed progress reports, drawdown records, and Federal Financial Reports. Fetched directly from oig.justice.gov and converted with pdftotext -layout; read in full, including the city's, police department's, and COPS Office's response appendices and the 's closing analysis. oig.justice.gov · original document
- Oversight.gov (U.S. federal inspectors general portal), Audit of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Technology and Equipment Program Grants Awarded to the City of Union City, Union City, New Jersey (report landing page) (2026-05-13) — Federal oversight portal's index entry confirming report number 26-052, the issuing office ( Audit Division), and the May 13, 2026 posting date; used to independently confirm the report's identity and date outside 's own site. oversight.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Technology and Equipment Program (TEP) (2026-07-19) — The granting agency's own program page describing the Technology and Equipment Program that funded both Union City grants, used to confirm the program's general purpose. cops.usdoj.gov · original document
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The Justice Department's Inspector General⧉ tested every dollar Union City, New Jersey spent under two federal police-technology grants -- $1,730,190 as of July 2025. It could not verify $1,696,808 of that spending: 98 percent, tied up in cameras purchased without competitive bids and dispatch software bought off state contracts the city couldn't document.