The Government Printing Office is leaving key entrances to their building exposed for hours at a time, documents obtained by The Examiner show.
A printout of police staffing at the printing office on North Capitol Street show that the office’s main desk, main receiving dock and key carport are not staffed for up to 21 hours per day.
The documents, dated from Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, 2005, show that those entryways are instead protected by what they call “foot patrol.” The problem is that an officer on foot patrol has to cruise the entire campus, which extends for more than a city block.
The printing office is home to thousands of vital government documents, including passports, and is also the resting place for dozens of vital first-response vehicles of other federal agencies.
Sources within the GPO — who asked to speak anonymously because their information is technically classified — say that the printing office has gone a step further since the 2005 scheduling and replaced the sworn, armed police officers patrolling near its main loading dock on H Street with four unarmed security guards — many of whom have not cleared a background check.
The printing office brought in the Knight Security company as a cost-cutting measure. Despite recommendations from some federal agencies that it merge its police force with the Capitol police, the GPO has kept its force but slashed the force’s number, from 55 after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to about 30 today.
Veronica Meter, spokeswoman for the printing office, did not respond to requests for comments Wednesday. But she has said before that the printing office takes security seriously.
U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., has asked his staff to look into the security situation at GPO.
