Texas Public Safety Agency Loses Track of Assets
by Brandi Grissom
January 21, 2011
The Texas Tribune

A 24-foot boat. A $74,000 piece of radio equipment. More than 150 handguns and rifles.

Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 items that the Texas Department of Public Safety reported stolen or lost in the last decade, according to information obtained by the Texas Tribune under public records laws. Together, the items the agency lost track of — which also include computer equipment and protective gear — are valued at more than $3.2 million and were often bought with taxpayer money.

Some of the items might have been found, warehoused or sold, a department spokeswoman said, but the agency’s inventory system is so poor it is hard to know exactly what assets are actually missing. “We haven’t had the tools we need to keep track of stuff very well,â€