Report finds DEA losing more guns, fewer laptops

[The Straight Story]

Report finds DEA losing more guns, fewer laptops
By Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press March 28, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Drug Enforcement Administration is losing more guns but fewer laptops than it was about five years ago, the Justice Department's inspector general said Friday.

The follow-up report found that some of the same problems cited in a 2002 audit remain: Policies for storing weapons and laptops are not always followed and, when they are lost, officials don't regularly report them.

The report credited the DEA with a 50 percent reduction in the frequency with which laptops are lost and stolen. But the inspector general said officials often have no idea what information was on the computers when they were stolen.

Officials are required to document whether sensitive material was on a lost or stolen computer. But of the 231 laptops lost in the 5½ years covered by the report, such documents were filed only five times.

"We asked DEA senior managers what the DEA did to determine the contents of the remaining 226 lost or stolen laptop computers. The DEA was unable to provide information regarding what was on the laptops," the report said. "We believe the DEA's inability to determine what was on the many stolen or missing laptops was a significant failure."

Auditors said the DEA lost 22 firearms and had an additional 69 stolen over the 5½-year period. The stolen weapons included pistols, rifles, shotguns, and a submachine gun.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39633&dcn=todaysnews

[High Plains]

1. The DEA should be dismantled...

...and its legions of agents forced to earn an honest living.

[aikoaiko]

2. someday soon I will have the same rifle the DEA uses.

Rock River Arms CAR-15

[Warren DeMontague]

3. The important thing is that they're wasting billions of dollars fighting the smoking of a relatively

harmless plant. That's what counts!