FPS MegaCenters provide federal agencies with three primary security services—alarm monitoring, radio monitoring, and dispatch—through four locations using a variety of IT systems. MegaCenters monitor intrusion, panic, fire/smoke, and other alarms. They also monitor FPS police officers’ and contract guards’ radio communication to ensure their safety and to provide information, such as criminal background or license plate histories, to officers upon request. In addition, they exercise command and control authority by dispatching FPS police officers or contract guards. MegaCenters also provide a variety of other services. For example, they notify federal agencies regarding national emergencies and facility problems and remotely diagnose problems with federal agency alarms. They also receive and transcribe FPS police officer incident reports. Individual MegaCenters may also provide unique services not provided by other MegaCenters, such as facility-specific access control and remote programming of alarms via the Internet. One MegaCenter also provides an after-hours telephone answering service for the Drug Enforcement Administration and for GSA building maintenance emergencies. The MegaCenters are located in Battle Creek, Denver, Philadelphia, and Suitland. Each MegaCenter has a sister center with redundant capability as backup in case of a failure at that MegaCenter. Suitland is paired with Battle Creek, and Philadelphia is paired with Denver. A force of 1,014 FPS police officers and 6,842 contract guards is available for the MegaCenters to dispatch in response to alarms and other emergencies. In fiscal year 2006, the MegaCenters were supported by a budget of $23.5 million, which accounts for about 5 percent of FPS’s total budget. The MegaCenters are operated by 23 full-time federal employees—some of whom manage the centers—and about 220 private contractors to provide around the clock security services for over 8,300 federal facilities. The MegaCenters rely on a variety of IT systems, communications systems, and other equipment to provide their security services. The IT systems enable MegaCenter staff to, among other activities, monitor alarms and radio communications of FPS police officers and contract guards. For communications systems, MegaCenters have regional and national toll-free numbers for tenants and the public to contact the MegaCenters during emergencies. Other equipment includes dictation machines, which enable FPS police officers to dictate reports about incidents that occur at facilities. MegaCenters use various means to assess operations, but their performance measures have weaknesses and are not linked to FPS-wide performance measures. MegaCenter managers assess MegaCenter operations through a variety of means, including reviewing data about volume and timeliness of operations, listening to and evaluating a sample of calls between operators and FPS police officers and contract guards, and receiving informal feedback about customer satisfaction. FPS managers also have developed 11 performance measures for assessing MegaCenter operations: distribute emergency notification reports (also known as SPOT reports) within 30 minutes of notification; review problem alarm reports daily; obtain regular feedback about customer satisfaction from field continuously review all SPOT reports and other outgoing information to ensure 100 percent accuracy; transcribe dictated offense and incident reports into the database management system within 8 hours of receipt of the report; submit reviewed contractor billing reports and time sheets within 7 business days after the last day of the month; prepare and review contractor reports for quality assurance plan; maintain completely accurate (nonduplicative) case control numbers; meet Underwriters Laboratories (UL) guidelines and requirements test failover of alarm, radio, and telephone systems weekly; and monitor calls and review recorded call content for adherence to standard procedures at least monthly. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 requires federal agencies to, among other things, measure agency performance in achieving outcome-oriented goals. Measuring performance allows organizations to track the progress they are making toward their goals and gives managers critical information on which to base decisions for improving their progress. We have previously reported on some of the most important attributes of successful performance measures. These attributes indicate that performance measures should (1) be linked to an agency’s mission and goals; (2) be clearly stated; (3) have quantifiable targets or other measurable values; (4) be reasonably free of significant bias or manipulation that would distort the accurate assessment of performance; (5) provide a reliable way to assess progress; (6) sufficiently cover the program’s core activities; (7) have limited overlap with other measures; (8) have balance or not emphasize one or two priorities at the expense of others; and (9) address governmentwide priorities of quality, timeliness, efficiency, cost of service, and outcome. We assessed the 11 FPS MegaCenter performance measures against selected attributes: linkage to mission and goals, clarity, and measurable targets. Ten of the 11 MegaCenter performance measures were aligned with FPS’s mission to protect federal properties and personnel and with the MegaCenter program’s mission to provide high-quality and standardized alarm monitoring, radio monitoring, and dispatch. We found no link between timely review of contractor time sheets and billing statements and FPS’s mission, however, primarily because this measure seems to be related to administrative activities. In addition, while 6 of the 11 performance measures have measurable targets—a key component for measuring performance, none of the MegaCenter performance measures met the clarity attribute because FPS could not provide information about how managers calculate the measures—a key component in the clarity attribute. For example, the performance measure that the centers test the failover ability of alarm, radio, and telephone systems weekly is measurable because it has a quantifiable target but does not meet the clarity attribute because FPS could not describe its methodology for calculating it. We also assessed whether, collectively, the MegaCenters’ 11 performance measures sufficiently cover their core program activities (i.e., alarm monitoring, radio monitoring, and dispatch) and address governmentwide priorities of quality, timeliness, efficiency, cost of service, and outcome. Most of the MegaCenter performance measures relate to the three core activities. For example, regular feedback on customer service and monthly review of operator calls cover aspects of the dispatch and radio-monitoring functions. Other performance measures, like distributing emergency notification reports in 30 minutes, help fulfill other critical support functions. However, two performance measures—reviewing contractor quality assurance plans and timely review of contractor time sheets and billing statements—relate to administrative activities that are not strictly related to MegaCenter core activities. Additionally, the MegaCenter performance measures do not collectively address all of the governmentwide priorities. The MegaCenter performance measures primarily address the governmentwide priorities of quality and timeliness. For example, the MegaCenter measures pertaining to transcribing reports within 8 hours and reviewing recorded calls to see if the operator followed standard operating procedures address aspects of service timeliness and quality, respectively. None of the measures relate to the governmentwide priorities of efficiency, cost of service, and outcome. Finally, FPS does not link MegaCenter performance measures to FPS-wide performance measures, specifically the patrol and response time measure. FPS established FPS-wide performance measures to assess its efforts to reduce or mitigate building security risks. The performance measures that FPS established were (1) timely deployment of countermeasures, (2) functionality of countermeasures, (3) patrol and response time, and (4) facility security index. The one measure that relates to the MegaCenters— patrol and response time—assesses FPS’s ability to respond to calls for service and measures the average elapsed time from when a law enforcement request is received (e.g., alarm, telephonic request from a building tenant, FPS police officer-initiated call) to the time an officer arrives at the scene. FPS’s goal is to reduce response times by 10 percent in fiscal year 2006. The MegaCenters are responsible for part of the patrol and response activity that is being measured because the MegaCenters receive alarms and emergency calls and dispatch FPS police officers or contract guards to the scene. However, although data pertaining to this activity exist in the MegaCenters’ records management system, they do not measure the timeliness of this activity, and FPS has not developed a performance measure that would identify the MegaCenters’ contribution toward meeting FPS’s measure. The nine selected security organizations generally do not provide all three of the MegaCenters’ primary services. However, the services these organizations offer are provided similarly by the MegaCenters with the exception of a CAD system, which three organizations use and the MegaCenters do not. The MegaCenters provide three primary services (i.e., alarm monitoring, radio monitoring, and dispatch), and the selected organizations provide all or some of these three main services. For example, the Park Police provide all three services, while the private organizations focus on providing alarm monitoring and offer some services the MegaCenters do not. Like the MegaCenters, all of the private organizations reviewed have centralized operations: the number of their national control centers ranges from two to five. Work allocation (i.e., how incoming alarms and calls are assigned) among centers varies by organization but overall is similar to the MegaCenter structure. For example, most of the organizations assign calls and alarms to a specific center based on the geographic location of the call or signal. However, the Postal Inspection Service and one private organization are unique because they are able to allocate workload to centers based on demand and operator availability. The organizations use a variety of methods to measure the quality of their services, many similar to methods used by the MegaCenters. For example, like the MegaCenters, most review a sample of operator calls on a regular basis. Two entities have established measurable performance goals for their centers. While there are similarities in the services offered, number of centers, work allocation, and service quality appraisals between the organizations reviewed and the MegaCenters, three organizations use a CAD system, which the MegaCenters do not.