SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Hundreds of items held by police, including several Central New York agencies, were missing from property inventories and even more items did not have accurate records, a state audit has found.

The results of the audit, released Tuesday by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, found problems in how eight of the 10 agencies audited maintained their property and evidence. Central New York agencies audited included the Madison County Sheriff's Office, the Auburn Police Department and the Watertown Police Department.

State auditors checked law enforcement controls over property room inventory from Jan. 1 2012, to Dec. 5, 2013.

The comptroller's office found that all 10 agencies audited had policies and procedures outdated and in need of updating. Auditors found a total of 293 items missing from inventory at all but two of the agencies. Missing items ranged from cash and drugs to electronics, firearms and vehicles.

The comptroller's office said that in the Madison County Sheriff's Office 33 percent of 433 items chosen at random were missing. Auditors found 10 percent of the items sampled were missing at the Watertown Police Department and 2 percent of items missing from the Auburn Police Department. In addition, Auburn police were found to have a procedure manual for evidence that is 20 years old and outdated.

Included on the list of current inventory for the sheriff's office were 100 marijuana plants. But those plants could not be found.

The sheriff's office was one of four agencies that had missing firearms and one of six agencies found to have vehicles listed on its inventory that were no longer there.

While the comptroller's office found serious problems with property and evidence handling of nearly all the agencies audited, one of the most common problems was with inaccurate record-keeping while property was held and lack of verification that it was later returned or destroyed.

Auditors said all but two agencies did not do enough to document what happened to items as well as if and when they were destroyed. All but two agencies were also found to use a computerized tracking system did not appropriately grant user rights to the system.

The comptroller's office recommended that agencies review and update policies and procedures for controlling property. Properly monitoring activity in property rooms and improving documentation for inventory tracking and disposal was also recommended.

The comptroller's office said agencies needed to do a better job of assigning access to computerized property tracking systems.

In a six-page response included with the report by the comptroller's office Sheriff Allen Riley said that although all of the items in questions were in the custody of the sheriff's office, record-keeping had been inaccurate. He did not address the missing marijuana plants in his response.

Riley called several statements by the comptroller's office regarding lost or misplaced property inaccurate. He said that he has been working to overhaul property procedures since he became sheriff in 2010.

He said many of the issues auditors raised have already been addressed and that the sheriff's office is in the process of submitting a corrective action plan to the comptroller's office.

Auburn police and Watertown police also said they were in the process of implementing changes suggested by the comptroller's office.