Summary
The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service (FPS) through its control centers (MegaCenters) helps provide for the security and protection of federally owned and leased facilities. This report (1) identifies the services MegaCenters provide, (2) determines how FPS assesses MegaCenter performance and whether FPS links MegaCenter performance measures to FPS-wide measures, and (3) examines how MegaCenters and selected organizations compare in the services they provide. To address these issues, GAO reviewed FPS's performance measures and past MegaCenter assessments, assessed the MegaCenters' performance measures, and interviewed officials and collected relevant information at FPS, the four MegaCenters, and nine selected security organizations.
FPS MegaCenters provide three primary security services--alarm monitoring, radio monitoring, and dispatching of FPS police officers and contract guards. These and other services are provided around the clock from four locations--Battle Creek, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Suitland, Maryland. With a fiscal year 2006 budget of $23.5 million, the MegaCenters monitor alarms at over 8,300 federal facilities, covering almost 381 million square feet, and have available for dispatch over 7,800 FPS police officers and contract guards. FPS MegaCenter managers assess MegaCenter operations through a variety of means, including reviewing data about volume and timeliness of operations, listening to and evaluating a sample of calls between operators and FPS police officers and contract guards, and receiving informal feedback about customer satisfaction. FPS managers have also developed performance measures for assessing MegaCenter operations. However, these measures are of limited use because they are not always clearly stated or measurable and do not address governmentwide priorities of efficiency, cost of service, and outcome--which are among the attributes that GAO has identified for successful performance measures. In addition, the MegaCenters do not measure a key activity--the time from alarm to officer dispatch--that would link MegaCenter performance to an FPS-wide performance measure. Without this measure, FPS is limited in its ability to evaluate the MegaCenters' contribution to the FPS-wide measure of response time. Nine selected security organizations--including federal and local police and private entities--offer some of the MegaCenters' services as well as provide and assess these services in a manner that is generally similar to the MegaCenters. Like the MegaCenters, many of the selected organizations have centralized their operations. They also use regular call reviews and volume and time measures to assess the quality of the services they provide. A major difference between the MegaCenters and some selected organizations is the use of a computer-aided dispatch system, which enables these organizations to automate many functions.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Katherine A. Siggerud
Government Accountability Office: Physical Infrastructure
(202) 512-6794
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Director of the Federal Protective Service to establish MegaCenter performance measures that meet the attributes of successful performance measures we have identified.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Border and Transportation Security: Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Federal Protective Service
Status: In process
Comments: Over the past year, FPS has begun laying the groundwork for the implementation of GAO's performance measures recommendations. FPS determined that the overall strategic direction for the organization needed to be set in order to better define the role of the MegaCenter program, and how these performance measures should support that strategic direction. FPS analyzed its mission and roles and published the first ever FPS Strategic Plan for FY08-FY11, which specified organizational goals and objectives. Concurrently, FPS assessed the availability of data through existing information technology systems to support each of its organizational goals and objectives. The assessment found that the existing systems do not adequately gather, track, and report on the data needed to support organizational performance measurement within FPS. As a result, FPS initiated two actions to modernize these systems to produce an integrated solution that will enable reliable data gathering and reporting capabilities. First, a contract was awarded for the development of a Risk Assessment Management Program (RAMP) that is expected to address the operational and performance challenges that FPS faces, which have hindered FPS's ability to report on performance. Second, planning has commenced on the acquisition of a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Information Management System to better run operations, gather data, and report performance. These integrated systems are to have embedded data collection protocols, which are expected to provide comprehensive and reliable data for performance measurement and reporting.
Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Director of the Federal Protective Service to develop a performance measure for the MegaCenters that is directly linked to the FPS-wide response time measure and covers the scope of the MegaCenters' operations, from alarm to dispatch.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Border and Transportation Security: Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Federal Protective Service
Status: In process
Comments: In June 2008, FPS implemented an interim solution using software changes that allows the gathering of limited data that will provide some baseline information about the times associated with dispatch. These data include the time of the incident, time the call for service was received, as well as dispatch and arrival for other responders. Once the CAD system is fully implemented, these data are to be replaced by more robust baseline analysis. These baseline data and CAD system operational data are expected to be used with performance measures to assess operational capability and progress over time.
Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Director of the Federal Protective Service to routinely assess the extent to which the MegaCenters meet established performance measures.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Border and Transportation Security: Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Federal Protective Service
Status: In process
Comments: FPS's assessment of MegaCenter performance measures will not commence until after its strategic planning and technology modernization efforts are fully implemented and MegaCenter specific performance measures have been established.
