Federal agencies and the Federal Protective Service face challenges regarding the sharing of actual or potential security incidents in federal buildings, GAO has said.
Building tenants and the FPS can share incident information through formal sources such as the Homeland Security Information Network–a federal portal of sensitive but unclassified information–and also informally, such as through professional relationships, GAO said.
The decision depends on factors such as FPS and agency guidelines, the characteristics of the incident and facility at issue, and professional judgment. For example, if an individual makes a threat against a federal employee or facility, guidelines require FPS officials to evaluate the threat and determine whether further action is needed. Or, if there is a demonstration at or near a federal facility, officials evaluate the characteristics of the demonstration and may increase security presence at the facility accordingly.
However, GAO said that FPS and GSA officials “experience some coordination challenges” such as difficulty coordinating response actions in facilities with multiple tenants and lack of radio interoperability with local law enforcement.
Officials told GAO that they are working on those issues, including the technological challenge of radio interoperability.