Summary

In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on current efforts to protect against domestic terrorism in federal court buildings and mass transit systems.

GAO found that: (1) the U.S. Marshals Service protects federal court facilities and personnel against terrorist actions; (2) the seven court districts it reviewed implemented and enhanced most of the Service's standard security measures against terrorism; (3) although the courts established emergency response procedures, they emphasized prevention; and (4) the courts generally selected risk-reduction strategies that would not negatively affect the court's openness or the general public's civil liberties. GAO also found that: (1) the Urban Mass Transportation Administration failed to address civil liberty issues in its technical assistance project on terrorism prevention and response strategies; (2) local transit officials regarded their systems as only secondary targets for terrorist attack and considered accident and common crime prevention more important than terrorism prevention; and (3) transit officials had generally not tested the performance effectiveness or intrusiveness of their security systems. In addition, GAO found that: (1) no one specific agency was responsible for providing federal agencies with technical information and expertise regarding the planning, coordination, and evaluation of domestic antiterrorism strategies; and (2) there was a lack of uniform, systematic, and comprehensive planning efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of current antiterrorism measures.