Federal buildings go unwatched

After the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building 13 years ago, things changed for federal employees, especially in Oklahoma City. Within two weeks of the attack, one building just four blocks away - occupied by the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and other agencies - installed X-ray machines, magnetometers and glass security walls, and posted security guards in the lobby. Every person entering the building was scanned and their credentials verified.

Tightened security soon became a familiar sight at federal buildings throughout the nation, with policies quickly implemented to prevent similar attacks. But what a difference a decade makes. That post-bombing ramp- up has been almost completely rolled back, says Lauri Goff, president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 45 and an employee in that Oklahoma City building. And security faded even more after the Federal Protective Service's post-Sept. 11 transition to the Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, she says.

The 10-story, 400,000-square-foot building where Goff works houses hundreds of federal employees. Nonetheless, she says, it has almost no security. There are no guards in the lobby, no one patrols the vacant floors and the cameras work intermittently.

Her concern is echoed by federal employees across the country, who say they do not feel safe, and by the Government Accountability Office, which has sounded the alarm on federal building security.

In the November 2008 issue of Government Executive, Elizabeth Newell explained how federal building security has deteriorated, and what officials are doing to remedy the situation.

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