The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Federal Protective Services (FPS) fails to detect prohibited items and materials entering federal buildings almost half of the time.
Security screeningss are not consistent in their ability to detect batons, pepper spray, knives, and other items, a report found.
The FPS oversees more than 13,000 contact guards, whose duties include “controlling facility access and screening visitors to detect prohibited items,” the report states.
“To determine if FPS was effectively protecting federal facilities, GAO investigators conducted 27 covert tests at 14 selected federal buildings in early 2024,” GAO wrote. “During these tests, GAO investigators had a prohibited item—a baton, pepper spray, or a multi-purpose tool with a knife—inside a bag that they attempted to bring into the building. FPS contract guards failed to detect prohibited items in about half of GAO’s tests.”
In order to improve the detective of prohibited items, FPS has sought to redesign the initial training for contract guards, increase on-the-job training, and collect “covert testing data.”
In a recent testimony before the House of Representatives, Physical Infrastructure Team for the GAO Director David Marroni said that FPS guard training has had identifiable weaknesses since 2008.
He noted that federal real property has also been on GAO’s list of “high-risk” sites since 2003 due to past attacks on federal buildings.
