BELMONT, N.C. -- Newly-released documents give us a glimpse into the internal investigation over allegations of mismanagement and misconduct at the Belmont Police Department.

Shortly after the investigation wrapped up in 2015, Belmont city officials fired former police chief Charlie Franklin.

Last summer, Ellen Deitz Tucker and Dan Deitz filed a public records request for the report. Their attorney says the family had concerns about the department's integrity after their sister's death during a 2012 Belmont police chase.

"Well the city of Belmont told us it was completely confidential and we thought that there would be at least portions that would be public record and that a judge needed to weigh in on that,” said Elliott Engstrom, Deitz family attorney.

This month, Judge Carla Archie of the 26th Judicial District granted the request and released a small portion of the 160-page report.

"The investigation found that is was a department with many internal problems where employees were split into two camps opposed to each other and were procedures and guidelines were routinely simply not followed,” said Engstrom.

In a written statement, Ellen Deitz Tucker said the report confirm suspicions that she has long held about disfunction within the department over the last several years.

"It was because we feared the Belmont Police Department was dysfunctional that we pushed the city to release the report," Tucker said. "In any responsible law enforcement agency, an honest appraisal of mistakes is essential to both effectiveness and public safety."

The documents highlighted three areas of concern: compensation, training issues and the community's perception of the belmont department.

The records also show that investigators found a missing Vice and Narcotic Asset Recovery notebook from 2002. According to the report, the book contains highly sensitive information like "criminal case files, drug purchases and confidential informants' information."

While the documents highlight what wasn't working at the Belmont Police Department, the Engstrom said he’s encouraged by the city's efforts to improve the department.

"They have already removed the police chief under which this misconduct occurred and they're increased pay for police officers,” he said.

Since this investigation, the city hired a new police chief but city officials say they're still working to improve the department.

"We've worked hard to have better training, more oversight, more accountability not just in the police department but citywide. and to make sure we're following the best practices and the best policies to be a professional department,” said Adrian Miller, Belmont City Manager.

Neither the Deitz family nor the city of Belmont have chosen to appeal the judge's order, making it the final action in this lawsuit.