The U.S. Park Police has lost track of thousands of handguns, rifles and machine guns in what a government watchdog agency concluded is the latest example of mismanagement on a police force trusted to protect millions of visitors to the city's iconic monuments. There is no indication that police guns got into the hands of criminals, but the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Interior warned that the Park Police might not know if they had. Right. Lost means no one knows where they are.
In a scathing report, the authors said there is "credible evidence of conditions that would allow for theft and misuse of firearms, and the ability to conceal the fact if weapons were missing."
"Commanders up to and including the chief of police have a lackadaisical attitude toward firearms management," wrote the deputy inspector general. "Historical evidence indicates that the indifference is a product of years of inattention to administrative detail."