More than 1,300 United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) badges and credentials have been lost or stolen in a period of 31 months, according to documents obtained by Complete Colorado. The documents also showed at least 165 firearms were also lost or stolen in that same time frame, which spans from October 2012 until April 2015.
The lost identification is raising concerns over what could happen if they fell in the hands of people wishing to attack the U.S.
“Law enforcement credentials, badges or ID cards can be used to access areas closed to the public, restricted access areas, and allow a person to pose as a law enforcement official where lax inspection of the credential to match it with the person carrying it allows that person entry to restricted areas,” said Michael Brown, former undersecretary of Homeland Security and director of FEMA. “Possession of these kinds of credentials gives terrorists or criminals the basic information needed to counterfeit other credentials.”
The majority of the unaccounted for badges and credentials — about 900 — come from the sub-agency Customs and Border Protection, according to the report. In addition, 300 were under Immigration and Customs Enforcement and 200 were for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
DHS spokesman Justin Greenberg submitted a statement to Fox News: “If a credential holder loses or has their credentials stolen, the holder must report the incident to their supervisor and credential issuance office immediately. Once the incident has been reported, this information is entered into appropriate DHS and law enforcement databases, which disables use of the lost or stolen items.”
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