Federal Land Management Agencies: Additional Actions Needed to Address Facility Security Assessment Requirements
Released: 2019-10-22T00:00:00

Letter

Available Data Show a Range of Threats and Assaults against Land Management Agency Employees, but Not All Incidents are Captured in the Data

Available federal law enforcement data show a range of threats and assaults against the four federal land management agencies’ employees in fiscal years 2013 through 2017. The severity of these incidents ranged from threats conveyed over the telephone to attempted murder and included an incident in which an employee was stabbed outside a federal building. The number of incidents of threats and assaults varied by agency. For example, for fiscal years 2013 through 2017

BLM data included 88 incidents of threats and assaults against BLM

FWS data included 66 incidents of threats and assaults against FWS

Forest Service data included 177 incidents of threats and assaults against Forest Service employees; and

Park Service data included 29 incidents of threats and assaults against Park Service employees.

Further, FBI data for fiscal years 2013 through 2017 show that the FBI initiated under 100 domestic terrorism investigations into potential threats to federal land management agencies. Our analysis of the FBI data showed that the majority of the domestic terrorism investigations involved BLM. Additionally, the majority involved individuals motivated by anti- government ideologies. For example, the FBI investigated one case in which a BLM law enforcement officer received more than 500 harassing phone calls and several death threats after a subject posted personal information about the officer on the social media platform Twitter.

However, the number of actual threats and assaults against federal land management employees is unclear and may be higher than what is represented in available data, because not all incidents of threats and assaults against land management agency employees are captured in the agencies’ databases. There are several reasons why this may be the case. Specifically, some incidents of threats and assaults are investigated by local or state law enforcement and may be recorded in their data systems rather than in the land management agencies’ systems. Additionally, officials from two agencies we interviewed said that when a single incident involved multiple offenses, the less serious offenses are unlikely to be recorded in the data system and, therefore, the entirety of what occurred may not be captured.

Further, land management agency employees do not always report all incidents of threats. For example, some field unit employees said that in certain circumstances, they consider receiving threats as a normal part of their job. Some officials also described being threatened while off duty, such as being harassed in local stores or being monitored at their home, and they said that in some cases they did not report the incident because it was a common occurrence. However, even in more high-profile incidents, agency officials told us that employees may not always report threats to agency law enforcement. For example, agency officials we interviewed cited specific incidents around the time of the 2016 armed occupation of FWS’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge that they did not necessarily report to their agency’s law enforcement. These incidents included individuals holding anti-government beliefs who followed a teenage girl wearing a BLM shirt around the local grocery store and threatened to burn her house down, and agency employees who had shots fired over their heads while working in the field. According to officials at two agencies, many employees were traumatized by the Malheur occupation and some did not return to work, including some who transferred to other agency field units.

Land Management Agencies Use Various Approaches to Protect Employees, but Several Factors May Affect Their Ability to Do So

Federal land management agencies use various approaches to protect their employees from threats and assaults, including deploying agency law enforcement officers to protect employees and resources and building relationships with external law enforcement entities and the public. Specifically, when necessary, agencies deploy additional law enforcement officers to assist their local officers. For example, during the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, FWS officials reported deploying FWS law enforcement officers from around the country to field units in western states to provide additional security for FWS employees.

Agency officials we interviewed also told us that they build relationships with local, state, and other federal agency law enforcement entities to help protect employees and resources in the field and to assist with coordinating law enforcement responses. Such relationships are important because not all field units have a law enforcement officer, and those that do often rely on local law enforcement for assistance in responding to incidents of threats or assaults against agency employees. For example, officials we interviewed at a field unit in Nevada stated that during a high-profile court case involving the agency, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department kept a patrol car outside the field unit for several days to help ensure field unit employees’ safety. Finally, officials at several field units we visited stated that their law enforcement officers are focused on educating, rather than policing, visitors.

Agency officials we interviewed cited several factors that can affect their ability to protect employees. Specifically, agency officials noted that employees are required to interact with the public as part of their official duties and may wear uniforms, which makes them easily recognizable and can put them at risk of being threatened or assaulted. (See figure 1.) Additionally, agency officials stated that it can be difficult to protect employees because, as part of their field work, employees may be dispersed across hundreds of miles of federal lands and may be located hours or days away from the nearest agency law enforcement officer. For example, as of fiscal year 2018, BLM had 194 field law enforcement officers to cover the 245 million acres of land managed by BLM.

Further, the number of agency field law enforcement officers at all four land management agencies declined from fiscal year 2013 through fiscal year 2018. For example, BLM experienced a decrease of 9 percent, while the Forest Service experienced a decrease of 22 percent, the largest decrease among the four agencies. Finally, agency officials we interviewed said that the risk to employee safety posed by individuals holding anti-government sentiments can be unpredictable and that incidents of threats and assaults against employees by such individuals are generally sporadic.

Land Management Agencies Have Not Met Certain Facility Security Assessment Requirements

The four federal land management agencies have completed some but not all of the facility security assessments on their occupied federal facilities as required by the ISC Standard. Agency officials cited various reasons for not doing so, including lack of resources, training, and expertise. Not complying with the ISC Standard’s requirement to complete facility security assessments on all occupied facilities could leave federal agencies exposed to risks in protecting their employees and facilities. While FWS has a plan to complete its assessments, BLM, the Forest Service, and the Park Service do not. Specifically:

FWS. FWS has conducted five facility security assessments on its approximately 465 occupied facilities. According to FWS headquarters officials, FWS employees have limited physical security expertise to conduct facility security assessments; therefore, the agency has developed a plan to meet the ISC Standard’s requirement using contractors.

BLM. BLM has conducted 21 facility security assessments on its approximately 280 occupied facilities, but officials do not know when they will complete the remaining assessments and do not have a plan to do so.

Forest Service. The Forest Service has conducted at least 135 facility security assessments on its approximately 1,135 occupied facilities, but officials do not know when they will complete the remaining assessments and do not have a plan for doing so.

Park Service. The Park Service has conducted at least 148 facility security assessments on its approximately 1,505 occupied facilities, but officials do not know when they will complete the remaining assessments and do not have a plan to do so.

The ISC Standard requires that agencies conduct assessments using a methodology that meets, among other things, two key requirements: (1) consider all of the undesirable events (e.g., arson and vandalism) identified in the ISC Standard as possible risks to facilities, and (2) assess the threat, vulnerability, and consequence for each of these events. The Forest Service’s methodology meets these two requirements and utilizes an ISC-compliant facility security assessment methodology developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Park Service’s methodology partially meets the requirements because it does not include a step to assess the consequences of specific undesirable events, as required by the ISC Standard. BLM and FWS have not yet established methodologies for conducting facility security assessments, although officials we interviewed from each agency stated that they intend to develop an ISC- compliant methodology. Specifically, BLM officials told us that they plan to hire a security manager who will develop an assessment methodology but did not know when the manager would be hired. FWS officials we interviewed provided a high-level description of what they expected to be included in their new methodology. However, FWS’s description did not indicate that the agency would evaluate the consequences of specific undesirable events, as required by the ISC Standard. Without developing a plan for conducting all of the remaining facility security assessments and using a methodology that complies with ISC requirements, agencies may not identify the risks their facilities face or identify the countermeasures they could implement to mitigate those risks.

Based on these findings, we made a total of six recommendations to the four land management agencies, including that

BLM, the Forest Service, and the Park Service each develop a plan to conduct all required facility security assessments agency-wide;

The Park Service update its facility security assessment methodology to address the consequences of specific undesirable events in order to comply with requirements in the ISC Standard; and

BLM and the Forest Service each develop facility security assessment methodologies that comply with requirements in the ISC Standard.

The four land management agencies generally concurred with our recommendations and provided examples of actions they plan to take to address our recommendations, including revising policies and developing new tools, training, and data system modules.

Chairwoman Haaland, Republican Leader Young, and Members of the Subcommittee, this completes my prepared statement. I would be pleased to respond to any questions that you may have at this time.

GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

If you or your staff have any questions about this testimony, please contact Anne-Marie Fennell at (202) 512-3841 or fennella@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this statement.

GAO staff members who made key contributions to this testimony are Casey L. Brown (Assistant Director), Tanya Doriss (Analyst in Charge), Charles W. Bausell, Charles A. Culverwell, John W. Delicath, Emily E. Eischen, Cindy K. Gilbert, Richard P. Johnson, Vanessa E. Obetz, Dan C. Royer, and Breanna M. Trexler.

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