As the primary federal agency that is responsible for protecting and securing GSA facilities and federal employees across the country, FPS has the authority to enforce federal laws and regulations aimed at protecting federally owned and leased properties and the persons on such property and, among other things, to conduct investigations related to offenses against the property and persons on the property. To protect the over 1 million federal employees and about 9,000 GSA facilities from the risk of terrorist and criminal attacks, in fiscal year 2007, FPS had about 1,100 employees, of which 541, or almost 50 percent, were inspectors, as shown in figure 1. FPS also has about 15,000 contract guards. FPS inspectors are primarily responsible for responding to incidents and demonstrations, completing BSAs for numerous buildings, serving as contracting officer technical representatives (COTR) for collecting and reviewing time cards for guards, and participating in tenant agencies’ BSC meetings. FPS police officers are primarily responsible for responding to criminal incidents, assisting in the monitoring of contract guards, and responding to demonstrations at GSA facilities and conducting basic criminal investigations. FPS physical security specialists, who do not have law enforcement authority, are responsible for participating in tenant agencies’ BSC meetings, and assisting in the monitoring of contract guard services. Special agents are the lead entity within FPS for gathering intelligence for criminal and antiterrorist activities, and planning and conducting investigations relating to alleged or suspected violations of criminal laws against GSA facilities and their occupants. According to FPS, its 15,000 contract guards are used primarily to monitor facilities through fixed post assignments and access control. According to FPS policy documents, contract guards may detain individuals who are being seriously disruptive, violent, or suspected of committing a crime at a GSA facility, but do not have arrest authority. FPS provides law enforcement and physical security services to its customers. Law enforcement services provided by FPS include proactive patrol and responding to incidents in or around GSA facilities. Physical security services provided by FPS include the completion of BSAs, oversight of contract guards, participation in BSC meetings, and the recommendation of security countermeasures. The level of physical protection services FPS provides at each of the approximately 9,000 facilities varies depending on the facility’s security level. To determine a facility’s security level, FPS uses the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Vulnerability Assessment Guidelines, which are summarized below. A level I facility has 10 or fewer federal employees, 2,500 or fewer square feet of office space, and a low volume of public contact or contact with only a small segment of the population. A typical level I facility is a small storefront-type operation, such as a military recruiting office. A level II facility has between 11 and 150 federal employees; more than 2,500 to 80,000 square feet; a moderate volume of public contact; and federal activities that are routine in nature, similar to commercial activities. A level III facility has between 151 and 450 federal employees, more than 80,000 to 150,000 square feet and a moderate to high volume of public contact. A level IV facility has over 450 federal employees; more than 150,000 square feet; a high volume of public contact; and tenant agencies that may include high-risk law enforcement and intelligence agencies, courts, judicial offices, and highly sensitive government records. A Level V facility is similar to a Level IV facility in terms of the number of employees and square footage, but contains mission functions critical to national security. FPS does not have responsibility for protecting any level V buildings. On the basis of the DOJ Vulnerability Assessment Guidelines, FPS categorized the approximately 9,000 GSA facilities in its portfolio into five security levels, as shown in figure 2. FPS also follows DOJ guidance for completing BSAs. DOJ guidance states that BSAs are required to be completed every 2 to 4 years, depending on the security level of the building. For example, a BSA for a level IV building is completed every 2 years and every 4 years for a level I building. As part of each assessment, the inspector is required to conduct an on-site physical security analysis using FPS’s Federal Security Risk Manager (FSRM) methodology and interview the Chairman and each member of the BSC, GSA realty specialists, designated officials of tenant agencies, site security supervisors, and building managers. After completing their assessments, inspectors make recommendations to the BSC for building security countermeasures. The BSC is responsible for approving the recommended countermeasures. In some cases, FPS has delegated the protection of facilities to tenant agencies, which may have their own law enforcement authority or may contract separately for guard services. FPS is a reimbursable organization and is fully funded by collecting security fees from tenant agencies. To fund its operations, FPS charges each tenant agency a basic security fee per square foot of space occupied in a GSA facility. In 2008, the basic security fee is 62 cents per square foot and covers services such as patrol, monitoring of building perimeter alarms, and dispatching of law enforcement response through its control centers, criminal investigations, and BSAs. FPS also collects an administrative fee it charges tenant agencies for building specific security services such as access control to facilities’ entrances and exits; employee and visitor checks; and the purchase, installation, and maintenance of security equipment, including cameras, alarms, magnetometers, and X-ray machines. In addition to these security services, FPS provides agencies with additional services upon request, which are funded through reimbursable Security Work Authorizations (SWA), for which FPS charges an administrative fee. For example, agencies may request additional magnetometers or more advanced perimeter surveillance capabilities. While FPS’s fiscal year 2008 annual budget totals $1 billion, for the purposes of this report we are focusing on the fees FPS estimates it will collect for the security services it provides to tenant agencies. For example, in fiscal year 2008, FPS estimates collections will total about $230 million, of which $187 million will be from its basic security services, $23 million from building specific services, and $20 million from SWAs, as shown in figure 3. FPS currently faces several operational challenges, such as a decrease in staff, that make it difficult to accomplish its facility protection mission. This decrease in staff has affected FPS’s ability to provide mission-critical services such as proactive patrol, contract guard oversight, and quality BSAs in a timely manner. FPS is taking steps to address these challenges. For example, FPS is moving to an inspector-based workforce, hiring 150 additional inspectors, and developing a new system to improve the quality and timeliness of BSAs. However, these actions may not fully resolve FPS’s operational challenges. Providing law enforcement and physical security services to GSA facilities is inherently labor intensive and requires effective management of available staffing resources. However, since transferring from GSA to DHS, FPS’s staff has declined and the agency has managed its staffing resources in a manner that has diminished security at GSA facilities and increased the risk of crime or terrorist attacks at many GSA facilities. Specifically, FPS’s staff has decreased by about 20 percent, from almost 1,400 employees at the end of fiscal year 2004 to about 1,100 employees at the end of fiscal year 2007, as shown in figure 4, while the number of buildings FPS has responsibility for has increased from approximately 8,800 to about 9,000. Over 60 percent of the decrease in staffing occurred in fiscal year 2007, when FPS’s staff decreased by about 170 employees because FPS offered voluntary early retirement, detailed assignments to other ICE and DHS components, and did not replace positions that were lost to attrition. In fiscal year 2008, FPS initially planned to reduce its staff further. However, a provision in the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act requires FPS to increase its staff to 1,200 by July 31, 2008. According to FPS’s Director, the agency expects to meet this requirement. In addition, according to the Director of FPS, in fiscal year 2010 it plans to increase its staff to 1,450. Between fiscal years 2004 and 2007, the number of employees in each position also decreased, with the largest decrease occurring in the police officer position. For example, the number of police officers decreased from 359 in fiscal year 2004 to 215 in fiscal year 2007, and the number of inspectors decreased from 600 in fiscal year 2004 to 541 at the end of fiscal year 2007, as shown in figure 5. At many facilities FPS has eliminated proactive patrol of GSA facilities to prevent or detect criminal violations. The FPS Policy Handbook states that patrol should be used to prevent crime and terrorist actions and delegates responsibility for determining the frequency and location of patrols to FPS’s Regional Directors. The elimination of proactive patrol has a negative effect on security at GSA facilities because law enforcement personnel cannot effectively monitor individuals surveilling federal buildings, inspect suspicious vehicles (including potential vehicles for bombing federal buildings), and detect and deter criminal activity in and around federal buildings. While the number of contract guards employed in GSA facilities will not be decreased, most are stationed at fixed posts, which they are not permitted to leave, and do not have arrest authority. According to a FPS policy document, contract guards are authorized to detain individuals. However, according to some regional officials, some contract guards do not exercise their detention authority because of liability concerns. According to some FPS officials at regions we visited, not providing proactive patrol has limited its law enforcement personnel to a reactive force. In addition, FPS officials at several regions we visited said that proactive patrol has, in the past, allowed its police officers and inspectors to identify and apprehend individuals that were surveilling GSA facilities.