This little-known federal agency can't explain why it needs a fleet of 1,100 flashy SUVs
The Federal Protective Service (FPS) is a relatively unknown division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which is primarily concerned with providing facility security for federal buildings. It's also the not-so-proud manager of a fleet of more than 1,100 pricey vehicles which a new audit finds the agency can't justify.
DHS Inspector General John Roth released a report revealing that FPS leased each law enforcement vehicle for about $9,000 per year, spending $10.5 million on the cars in fiscal year 2014. Some 93 percent of the vehicles were gadget-laden SUVs, though Roth concluded simpler midsize sedans would suffice.
The agency also leased 101 more vehicles than it employed full-time agents, arguing that it needed one excess car for every five agents in case another SUV needed to be repaired.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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