RT NewsThe US Marshals Service has lost 2,200 encrypted two-way radios and communication devices valued at $6 million or more, and officials are worried that the devices may have found their way into the hands of criminals.
Losing the devices could pose a security risk for federal judges and endangered witnesses, since criminals who may have obtained the radios could use them to listen in on security details and law-enforcement operations, Marshals officials told the Wall Street Journal.
The US Marshals Service (USMS) is responsible for the protection of court officers and buildings, including the Supreme Court. The service also runs the Witness Protection Program, which is designed to help witnesses and their families acquire new identities with authentic documentation, often to avoid being killed for testifying. The service also strives to apprehend fugitives. Marshals officials use radios to securely communicate in the field, but thousands of these devices remain unaccounted for.
Each radio ranges in price from about $2,000 to $5,000, bringing the total value of the 2,200 lost devices to about $6 million.
“This issue is in large part attributable to poor record keeping as a result of an older property-management system, as opposed to equipment being lost,” USMS spokesman Drew Wade told the Journal.
The agency’s Office of Strategic Technology noted the problem in a 2011 presentation. In March of this year, the agency concluded a nationwide inventory of its equipment and discovered the missing items. Some unnamed officials told the Journal that the count of missing devices has since grown to at least 4,000.
“It is apparent that negligence and incompetence has resulted in a grievous mismanagement of millions of dollars of USMS property,” stated the 2011 presentation. “Simply put, the entire system is broken and drastic measures need to be taken to address the issues…The 800 pound elephant in the room needs to finally be acknowledged.”
The agency’s spokesperson claims that there are no instances where “public safety was jeopardized as a result of this,” but the risk remains very real. One Marshals official told the Journal that one of the agency’s radios was sold a few years ago by an eBay user from Hong Kong. A Marshals Service official bought the device and upon examination, investigators noticed that it had been taken apart and reassembled.
Internal notes obtained by the Journal reveal that USMS officials have long tried to downplay the significance of the missing devices and feared media exposure.
One note describes a phone call in which USMS Director Stacia Hylton tried to come up for a lower dollar value of the missing devices to make the $6 million loss appear less significant. Another note describes a conversation in which a senior official declares that he or she will not “take the fall in the media for missing radios.” The author of the note replies, “I am not taking the ‘fall’ for the agencies [sic] inability to take corrective action and ensure accountability for millions of dollars in missing radios.”
Incompetence or another fast and furious debacle?
Just look on EBAY they are probably there from time to time. No accountability for anything from anyone that works for the Fed’s. If the people that lost them had to pay for them this would never happen. Now we the people will have to pay for them.
Deduct the cost of the losses from their personal paychecks, whoever they were signed out to, whoever was assigned safekeeping of inventory, and deduct double the cost of the losses from the personal paychecks of the managers of those directly responsible, and deduct triple the cost of the losses from the personal paychecks of the execs. This crap would stop in a flash.
But then I wake up and realize that I was again dreaming while awake, and that the ABC agencies are not serving me or anyone else of the public – they live and breathe to serve only their bankster masters. And not to worry, John Q. Public, because Ben Bernanke can just print up some more money in no time.
First it is 2200, then it is 4000. It seems like 6 million just jumped to near 12 million. Is it just me or is it worse than we are hearing about.
There’s probably some guy name of Julio in an alleyway selling two way encrypted radios out of the back of his van.
One way or another, We the People paid for those radios, so they belong to US! And this government better start living within it’s mandates and quit wasting our money!!
. . .
“It is apparent that negligence and incompetence has resulted in a grievous mismanagement of millions of dollars of USMS property,” stated the 2011 presentation. “Simply put, the entire system is broken and drastic measures need to be taken to address the issues…The 800 pound elephant in the room needs to finally be acknowledged.”
It is apparent that no one will do a damn thing about negligence and incompetence since they know they can keep getting away with it and people will just say, “Bitch about it for one day and then say, ‘Oh well!’ the next”.