Based on some internal agency documents, The U.S. Marshals were reported of losing millions worth of 2000 encrypted two-way radios and other communication devices.
It was during 2011, the problem came out when Marshals used latest radios for communication. The leaders of agency started to face trouble when it came to tracking their equipment. People were sent out from the Federal Court House, Boston due to the bomb threat on 17th April. Marshals fear about the possibility of criminals interfering in the operation of the radios.
Drew Wade, spokesman of USMS said that the issue has come up due to poor record keeping and management system. With the documents and interviews taken so far, it was observed that the missing radios cost around $2,000 to $5,000 each. It was reported that during March, nearly 2000 communications items, mostly radios were missing. Later on the number has risen up to 4000.
The spokesman couldn’t bring out the exact number of missing items, but he said that the agencies are on its idea about purchasing new inventory-tracking systems. USMS officials also concluded that the missing is due to bad tracking and management. It was also alleged that some employees had done mistakes in the paper works.
Some years back, Marshals reported that they bought a radio from eBay, which was alleged to be the company’s. To their surprise, they couldn’t track the seller because the parts were reassembled and changed. The issue is that the latest radios can be easily disabled. The agency is not facing this issue at first time. This has been happening for more than once.
Some people comments that the missing problem is due to some errors in accounts and many believes that the parts can be located easily with good investigation. It was reported that the agency is not moving this issue with media as it is the responsibility to take up a correct step for the missing.
During FOIA requests, Marshals were instructed to pass out the information through phone rather than writing. It was reported that one of the executive of Marshals was pressing to lower the rate of missing items though they had maintained according to government regulations.