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IG Criticizes Work On Wireless Network For Law Enforcement
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According to Fine, Justice officials said their Department of Homeland Security colleagues "never participated at the level DOJ expected." Justice said the effort has been repeatedly set back by high turnover at the four-year-old Homeland Security department.
In a written statement, Justice Department spokesman Van Hitch said the report "raises valid concerns regarding funding and interagency partnership." Fitch added that "the Department believes the IWN program is the most appropriate strategy for providing DOJ agents with secure, reliable and interoperable communications in the field."
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Larry Orluskie said only that "DHS concurs with Justice's recommendations."
Fine reported that Department of Homeland Security agents will account for 64 percent of the expected users of the network. But DHS officials appear to be pursuing separate communications systems. For example, the department cites Congressional pressure to speed along a high-technology "virtual" fence on the border with Mexico, part of its Secure Border Initiative.
Last September, DHS awarded an SBInet contract to independently upgrade communications and surveillance systems used by Border Patrol officers and customs agents.
IWN's troubles are not the first time the Justice or Homeland Security departments have struggled to develop new technology. The FBI in 2005 abandoned its Trilogy plan to overhaul its antiquated case filing and management system after spending $170 million.
Fine's office warned that the department's aging radio systems also face a slowly developing crisis. Nearly three-fourths of the department's 4,163 radio system sites are considered obsolete because they are no longer supported by the manufacturer, making spare parts difficult to find and requiring customized maintenance.
Replacing those systems would cost the Justice Department $900 million, while meeting its share of IWN would cost another $2 billion, the inspector general report stated. It added that a "major infusion of funding will be required over the next several years."
