Word: fps
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...tempting targets for both international terrorists (such as those who attacked the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001) and domestic assailants like Timothy McVeigh, who bombed Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995. But security at the government buildings guarded by the Federal Protective Service (FPS) is almost comically inept, according to a disturbing report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Over the past year, undercover investigators visited 10 supposedly high-security buildings in four cities and at each location were allowed inside with bombmaking ingredients. Investigators then walked into restrooms, assembled the devices and freely strolled around...
...baby: The report says an absentminded guard at an unidentified federal building sent a baby through an X-ray machine while the baby's mother was pulling out her identification. The guard was fired but subsequently sued the FPS, claiming he never received proper X-ray training. The FPS could not produce evidence of the training, and the guard won the lawsuit...
...Other issues with guards: FPS has had numerous problems with poorly trained or incompetent guards, many of them hired through the 67 private companies the agency contracts. Investigators found one armed guard asleep at his post after having taken the painkiller Percocet. Another guard was found using a government computer to work on his adult-website business, while another misbegotten guard accidentally fired his gun while he practiced drawing the weapon in a bathroom...
...Training and certification: The report found that FPS is not providing guards with required training - one region hadn't offered mandatory courses since 2004. In addition, guards were found to have expired certifications in things like firearm and CPR training. Forty percent of the 191 guards at one high-level facility lacked current paperwork to demonstrate they had not been convicted of domestic violence - documents that are necessary to carry a gun legally...
...Lowdown: Senator Joseph Lieberman called the GAO's findings "about the broadest indictment of an agency of the Federal Government that I've heard," and it's hard to disagree. The director of the FPS, which has a budget of about $1 billion, said a lack of money and manpower has hampered the organization and vowed to address the problems. It seems safe to guess that some improvement is on the way - after all, things can't get much worse. But along with weaknesses documented in the Transportation Security Administration, the report supports the notion that even in a post...