**GAO-10-236T**                      Published: Nov 18, 2009. Publicly Released: Nov 18, 2009.                  

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## Highlights

The Federal Protective Service (FPS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for providing law enforcement and related security services for nearly 9,000 federal facilities under the control and custody of the General Services Administration (GSA). In 2004 GAO identified a set of key protection practices from the collective practices of federal agencies and the private sector, which included allocation of resources using risk management, strategic management of human capital, leveraging of technology, information sharing and coordination, and performance measurement and testing. This testimony is based on past reports and testimonies and discusses (1) limitations FPS faces in protecting GSA buildings and resulting vulnerabilities; and (2) actions FPS is taking. To perform this work, GAO used its key practices as criteria, visited a number of GSA buildings, surveyed tenant agencies, analyzed pertinent laws and DHS and GSA documents, conducted covert testing at 10 judgmentally selected high-security buildings in four cities, and interviewed officials from DHS, GSA, and tenant agencies, and contractors and guards.

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## Topics

Homeland Security

Data collectionFacility securityFederal facilitiesFederal office buildingsFederal property managementHomeland securityHuman capital planningMonitoringPerformance measuresReal propertyRisk assessmentRisk managementSecurity threatsStrategic planningTechnologyTenantsTestingInformation sharingProgram coordination