Clarifying the roles and responsibilities for securing the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), deputy secretary Alejandro Mayorkas approved a proposal that gives complete security responsibility to the department’s chief security officer and puts the Federal Protective Service (FPS), which typically is in charge of security federal civilian buildings, in a subordinate role.
The May 1 memo that originated with Greg Marshall, the DHS chief security officer, and was approved by Mayorkas, said there is no “clear unity of command” at the headquarters facility, also known as the Nebraska Avenue Complex (NAC).
“My team has responsibility and is on-site,” Marshall said in the memo. “The Federal Protective Service also asserts authority, but is not on campus in a 24/7 fashion.”
The memo and the roles and responsibilities of the FPS at the NAC were discussed at a hearing today hosted by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Public Buildings.
Marshall said that the “bifurcated” security structure at the NAC poses challenges, noting that if an active shooter incident occurs, the CSO’s role is to engage the shooter and manage the response while FPS manages the activities of the security guards.
However, Marshall said that FPS maintains limited leadership authority at the NAC and as such necessitates a “back-up response time from other FPS officials that could take a significant period of time. This divided effort as well as response time constraints, does not optimize effective, coordinated response.”
The memo pointed out that the FPS still has a role in securing the NAC, such as providing bomb dog support.
Leonard Patterson, director of the FPS, told the panel that the decision to unite command at the NAC within the DHS CSO was not due to performance issues within his agency but instead came down to “unity of command.”
The FPS has more than 1,000 personnel and maintains a contractor force in excess of 13,000 security guards that man the checkpoints and other key nodes at federal civilian facilities nationwide. The FPS and its guard force have been criticized for years for poor security training and a lack of standardization. Mark Goldstein, director of the Physical Infrastructure Team at the Government Accountability Office, told the subcommittee that there are still “pockets” of the contractor guard force that are not adequately trained in the use of security equipment and firearms.