Fox NewsThe U.S. Park Police has lost track of a huge supply of handguns, rifles and shotguns, according to a report released Thursday on the law enforcement agency responsible for safeguarding the National Mall and critical American landmarks.
In the scathing report, the inspector general’s office of the Department of Interior faults staff at the agency for having no idea how many weapons they control and says the department has no clear policies or procedures for investigating missing weapons. The office said top managers, including the police chief, have shown a “lackadaisical attitude toward firearms management.”
“Historical evidence indicates that this indifference is a product of years of inattention to administrative detail and management principles,” deputy inspector general Mary Kendall wrote to Jonathan Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, in a letter that accompanies the report.
While surveying Park Police field office armories, investigators found more than 1,400 extra and unassigned weapons that were intended to be destroyed. They also found 198 handguns that were transferred from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and stored in an operations facility firearms room without being recorded in an inventory system.
Investigators also found that an officer who had been detailed to President Obama’s inauguration in January retained a semi-automatic rifle without permission and stored it at his home. Another officer stored a shotgun at his home in San Francisco without permission, according to the report.
“We found credible evidence of conditions that would allow for theft and misuse of firearms, and the ability to conceal the fact if weapons were missing,” Kendall wrote.
The report, which was first reported by The Washington Post, concluded that the agency failed to fully investigate weapons it could not account for, including 18 pistols, shotguns, and rifles that were entered into a national database as missing or stolen.
As recently as April 2013, two automatic rifles were discovered during a firearms search at the agency’s aviation unit for which officials had no prior knowledge, the report states.
The watchdog agency said its report was triggered by an anonymous tip suggesting that the Park Police could not account for government-issued military-style weapons.
A spokesman for the agency did not immediately return an email seeking comment, and an evening shift commander said he hadn’t seen the report and couldn’t discuss it.
The report also includes 10 recommendations to improve firearms management.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bull, they all have a mighty fine fire arm collection at their home or cabin in the hills I bet. And I bet that they also have a whole lot of them confiscated drugs to go along with those missing weapons, I can bet on that one.
Yup.
Sad isn`t it Angel. Their time is gonna come, I guarentee it.
And no one is in trouble or fired over it, right? Of course not. I thought so. But if it was me who stole them, I would be hunted down for all of eternity and get the Snowden treatment.
Maybe they should check the park or the cabins if the park is located in the forest. Just an after thought.
So they didn’t ‘steal’ the weapons, they were just stored improperly at employee’s homes?
If I had tried that kind of lame brain lie on my mom, I would of got an ass whuppin’ for the lie and another ass-whuppin’ for lying about the lie.
Lost track of or sold like they are doing with the guns being turned in at gun buy backs.
Hell those govt. employee crimminals will most likely use those weapons to go and commit crimes…. It shouldn`t be all that hard to trck down who is responsible for these weapons missing. After all they do know who is supposed to be in charge of this don`t they. Any heads roll because of this because if not there should be. There probobly never will be though.