Action News Investigators look at the agency and people guarding out federal buildings

DETROIT (WXYZ) - We are learning more information about what led up to a contract security guard leaving the bomb inside the McNamara Building for weeks.

Federal buildings are potential targets for terrorists. So why does the government rely on private security guards to keep everyone inside those buildings safe?

For years, a government watchdog agency has been highly critical of the feds using these private contract security guards. What happened here in Detroit is not an isolated incident.

As the FBI builds its case against the man accused of leaving a bomb outside the McNamara Federal Building… federal investigators also want to know why a contract security guard brought the explosive device inside the building and left it in the security area for 3 weeks.

Here’s how security works inside about 9,000 federal buildings across the country, including the McNamara Building:
The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service, or FPS, is the police force in charge of keeping everyone inside federal buildings safe.

Since the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City, FPS has hired thousands of contract security guards to protect entry points and screen visitors at federal buildings throughout the U.S.

In the McNamara building, the contract guards work for a company called DECO, which has a $13.5 million dollar contract to provide security for federal facilities in Michigan.

Sources tell Action News that when DECO guard Ralph Smith moved the bomb inside the building last month – he violated at least two protocols.

It’s not the only time a contract guard has failed to follow the rules.

In its most recent report to Congress, investigators from the watchdog agency known as the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, made some alarming findings about some of FPS’s 15,000 contract guards.

“FPS is not doing its job. Most jarring, we will hear today that GAO investigators were able to smuggle liquid bomb making materials into all the federal buildings they tested, that was 10, all of them, past apparently unsuspecting guards,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman during Congressional testimony in July of 2009.

“Preliminary conclusions which the committee received… were so disturbing to us that we decided to air them immediately,” said Sen. Lieberman.

GAO’s report showed that all of the guard contractors they reviewed were not in compliance with training and certification requirements. GAO investigators discovered that during a five year period, FPS had not provided X-ray training to about 1500 guards in just one region alone.

In addition to contract guards failing to detect test bombs smuggled into buildings – GAO investigators found some shocking examples of contract guards not complying with orders. In one case, instead of standing his post, a contract guard was caught using government computers to further his for-profit adult Web site. In another case, a contract guard sent a baby in an infant carrier through the X-ray machine.

The union president who represents FPS police tells Action News he’s been fighting for years to allow actual FPS officers – not contractors – to oversee security in federal buildings. David Wright calls the actions of the contract guard at the McNamara building “egregious.”

“That item should have been left in place, outside where it was originally spotted. FPS should have been given a call… The problem with the system as it stands is, these are all privately contracted security officers, there’s relatively little training,” said Wright.

“That FPS is not doing anywhere near enough to make sure it’s private contract guards, the first line of defense at federal buildings, are qualified or trained for their jobs,” said Sen. Lieberman.

Officials from the Federal Protective Service tell Action News that in response to that GAO report – they have been making changes. They have a new director, and FPS created a Mobile Training Team to provide onsite advanced training for contract guards. One of those mobile teams will be in Detroit very soon. FPS officials also say all the on-site contract guards at the McNamara Building meet the training and certification requirements.