From Government Executive:
The House on Monday passed legislation that responds to issues flagged by watchdogs about oversight of contract security guards at federal buildings.
The Personnel Oversight and Shift Tracking Act of 2025 (H.R. 3425), approved 402-0, would require the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for guarding more than 8,500 facilities [including Social Security offices], to “establish processes to strengthen oversight, performance and accountability of contract security personnel.”
Specifically, it would task FPS with developing a standardized process for collecting and analyzing the results of covert security tests when the employees don’t know that they’re being evaluated and mandating contract security companies to provide corrective training to any personnel who fail such tests.
The Government Accountability Office in March reported that contract guards who screen individuals entering federal buildings failed to detect prohibited items (e.g. baton, pepper spray) in about half of covert tests that its investigators conducted. GAO also analysed nearly 500 such evaluations performed by FPS between 2020 and 2023 and found that roughly half of the time the contract security did not notice the prohibited item. ...
Let's be safe but let's not get carried away. I've met guards who did everything but a cavity search.
5 comments:
I've had a horrible run-in with security at SSA. One gaurd grilled me until tears came out. Then he let me in. I am a 50 year old man that is very very much so not a threat (I dunno what his issue was with my walker, but he thought it was the end of the world, me bringing it in there at my age). It was a nightmare, and only made my disabilities worse. Anxiety going to a gov't building now is overwhelming.
I love all the requirements for spot checking guards. But they can’t even inspect bags anymore. So great, test to see if they are able to detect a [fake] bomb. But if they are not permitted to check a bag, how could they possibly detect a bomb? IRS had someone pull a gun on an employee at a field office because their guards couldn’t search bags either. Only a matter of time before something like that happens at an SSA office.
The guard at my building are fantastic, friend and courteous.
Yep! They're not all jerks. It's the ones that are that gives the good ones a bad look. Only takes one to betray the trust of an individual.
Another issue with security guards is when they take it upon themselves (or worse, are directed by SSA employees) to give advice, turn people away, view documents with PII, or other things that only SSA staff should do. I know the lines are long and people ask them questions. But they really shouldn't be talking with the public about these topics--the guards can't record the interactions in SSA systems and sometimes provide inaccurate information. I wish OIG or GAO sent in "secret shoppers" to identify this issue too.
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