Report: Federal Protective Service financially strapped

June 18, 2008
Police agency forced to cut essential duties

The Federal Protective Service, which is in charge of securing nearly 9,000 federal buildings in Washington, D.C., is facing financial hardship, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

According to a study by the Government Accountability Office, which began in April of 2007, the police agency is short staffed and has been forced to cut some duties, such as patrols aimed at preventing, detecting and deterring crime.

The agency’s financial woes are attributed to when they were brought under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, at which point it lost a $139 million annual subsidy.

Though they are hiring additional officers and attempting to gain a handle on its financial situation, the GAO report states that the FPS’ utilizes too many private security guards with no police powers and that many of their security solutions, including surveillance cameras and X-ray machines have been broken for quite sometime.