Return to Article: Federal Protective Service may cut hundreds of police jobs
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82347
I am a contract security officer and there is no doubt that we protect and do most of the police/protection work within/on federal property daily. Deputizing contract officers with full arrest/police powers would eliminate having to waking up an FPO on nights/weekends when the contract security could handle these type incidents.
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56768
The US Government needs to keep all FPS Police Officer jobs not elliminate them.
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55028
I have to agree that something needs to be done about the security situation at Federal facilities. FPS Police Officers only work from 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday. The majority of local law enforcement agencies are short handed and have their hands full too. The contract security guards should be given more training to retain the best and deputized buy ICE while ON DUTY ONLY or they should become federal guards identified as Federal Protection Officers with arrest powers while ON DUTY. What good are the Federal Protective Services Police Officers if they can't respond to a call because they don't work nights or weekends. Can you imagine if the local police agencies had the same policy? By the way, the local agencies hate hearing that they have to respond to crimes comitted on federal property because FPS Officers do not work nights and weekends.
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48808
I believe that the contract guards should under go better training and be able to receive a proper federal enforcement title as many people do not take security people seriously thus making a guard's job difficult to enforce many of the rules and regulations at federal facilities. As I also believe that outside contractors are not able to do their jobs of overseeing their guard programs well enough thus the guards should be managed directly under ICE. Contract guards should at least have proper ID's that at least what they can and cannot do on federal facilities such as if they can conduct search and seizures and or arrest and detain individuals just like the federal police. We make just about the same money the FPS police earns a year but yet the government chooses to pay a higher price for service to outside companies for the guard program which I think is not a good move for the financial side for the government. Taking guards under the wing of the federal system directly would be a better cost effect way to save money in the long run.
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23246
I must agree with the contract guards; and not just because I am one. In the 90's I was a deputy sheriff/fto and did FPS contract work part time. I couldn't believe the loose and unprofessional folks that made up FPS at that location. There was a definate reason that their patches did not say "Police" back then.
Now that I'm retired and am a full time CSO I can tell you that FPS has refused to show up on crimes and has refered it to local police. Again there is a definate reason that more and more facilities/agencies do not list their jurisdictions as exclusive(FPS only).
Just hire and train professional Contract Security Officers. It will continue to save the feds lots of money (benefits & retirement) and put an end to a very flawed and failed FPS.
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21786
Well I've heard from all of you, now you should hear me. I am an FPS contract guard, I would not like to see some of the FPOs lose their jobs; but it's been a long time coming. FPOs don't protect Federal Building or employees, we do. We write the reports that and the inspectors follow up on them. When we have disruptive individuals, we handle it. We prevent individuals from entering federal facilities with prohibited items (drugs, knives, etc.) where is an FPO. And when they do show up you should see how they handle the situation? The government should deputize us and let the contract guards have the authority. We are mostly made up of military, police or corrections. We receive lots of training. Even the CSOs are deputized by the marshals and they're a contract security company.
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21588
I completely agree with the comments made by "cop." FPS is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. There are only 1500 FPS personnel across the nation - and only a few hundred of them are actual credentialed LEOs. There aren't enough of them to make a difference regardless. The only personnel guarding the Federal Buildings are the Contracted Guards. The Federal Police Officers (FPOs) are running around doing patrols and if a federal agency calls 911 - the locals respond within minutes. In Los Angeles, it can take up to an hour for a response from an FPO unless they just happen to be at the federal location needing help.
I say enhance the guard service at the sites that need them and get rid of FPS by integrating them into other departments where they are desperately needed - like deportation and immigration. First, you have to protect the borders/airports from allowing them (terrorists) to enter in the first place - then you don't have to spend as much money protecting the interior homeland - because you've restricted terrorists from finding a way to get over here in the first place via land, air, and sea.
You don't have to abolish FPS - just move them into positions where they can really make a difference. Sufficiently training contract guards and state of the art technology can protect employees and buildings. We need to quit throwing money away paying FPS - they are already 80 million in the hole and growing. Realign, reassign, or RIF - but for God's sake quit throwing more and more money down the hole of taxpayer losses.
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21254
Jurisdiction, jurisdiction -- who has the jurisdiction? You make some good points, but are forgetting the most basic principle of law enforcement, the above word. (IMO), federal properties are legally protected by federal LEO's, not local police, and, of course the reverse is true. Most local police departments have their hands full today with policing their part of the United States, and would, like our armed forces, have difficulty in assuming other property. If the FPS officers stopped a crime in progress good for them! Sounds like the old turf battle is still being fought here.
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21237
FPS should be totally eliminated and the funds freed up from that should be given to local police departments to provide protection for federal facilities, which is happening anyway.
The missing part of this situation is the federal over sight of the services providing protection to the federal facilities. The people of the USA do not need the FPS, and the park police because we are paying local police to do this function. However, we will need park police in remote areas but not at the monuments in Washington DC or on the George Washington Parkway that can be and should be handled by local police. Remember the 9/11 scare at the Pentagon?
They had armed Humvees stationed all over the place but also had Virginia Highway patrol cars all alone highway 110 for years after 9/11. Those highway patrol guards really were likely to stop any aircraft from hitting the pentagon again. We also really needed them to supplement the Army guards and park police that had responsibility for the area. Guess we needed to get Virginia some money by paying for highway patrol when we had a large number of military sitting at Andrews AFB and the multiple Army facilities around Washington DC. Could it be that we needed to get money to Moran, Davis, Warner (both the Senator and the Governor) and maybe even Frank Wolf?
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21189
Another black mark for ICE and DHS as a whole.
DHS hands out millions of tax dollars to state and local authorities in the name of homeland security. State and local authorities are assuming the law enforcement tasks that they have neither the authority or training for. These tasks should be performed by the federal government.
Instead of cutbacks in DHS, we should be out front in the homeland security arena. We are an embarrassing collection of low morale employees, under funded agencies and clueless management.
DHS can't seem to provide Congress with reports in a timely fashion, we haven't fixed the interoperable communications problem, ICE agents are being asked to handle investigations for which they are not properly trained to handle and now ICE management wants to cut FPS positions.
A DHS spokesperson blamed the media for the low morale problem. DHS management should look in the mirror if they are looking for the source of the problem, then stand up and accept responsibility for this mess.
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21183
I can't believe that Homeland Security wants to cut federal protection jobs. Maybe Homeland Security should be renamed to Homeland Insecurity!
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21182
Anybody remember the Oklahoma City Murrah Building?
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21174
It seems very foolish to cut FPS police officers, who guard federal facilities, in order to save $80 million when we are throwing away billions of dollars on homeland security. Maybe every small town in America doesn't need a fancy new fire truck or emergency response vehicle funded by DHS grants, and the money can instead be used where it can do the most good (i.e., protection of federal facilities) rather than for pure pork.
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21168
Another cut, another cut, and pretty soon the agency will be hiring part-time cops, just "to stay competitive". What garbage! Like the Ford Motor company that is laying off hundreds of workers to stay competitive. You cannot skimp on security, and you cannot to more with less, but then President Shrub has been gutting the federal civil system for 6.5 years, and dumb Americans just nod their heads. Wake up America, we're still losing!
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21167
"In addition, the memo confirmed earlier reports by Government Executive that FPS is scaling back night and weekend service. Under the proposal, the agency would not provide "night or weekend police response or service anywhere," the memo stated. Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Wyoming will see the most reductions in staff.
""Major facilities ... will be unprotected after normal business hours," said David Wright, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 981, which represents hundreds of FPS workers. "The agency has officially told me that police positions will be cut. I'm disturbed by the numbers I'm hearing about.""
Oh, great. If I was a terrorist, all I'd have to do is wait for everyone to go home. Great plan. Or maybe they can hire contractors. There's never enough money for feds but always enough for contractors.
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