SAFETY AND SECURITY: Physical Security Vulnerabilities at Washington Union Station and Ivy City Yard

This report assesses the effectiveness of the company’s efforts to ensure the physical security of Washington Union Station and Ivy City Yard.

We identified a variety of security concerns at both facilities with perimeter and interior security, poor lighting, nonworking security cameras, and an inefficient incident reporting process that reduces response timeliness and affects response coordination. Adding to those weaknesses is a lack of supervision over contracted security personnel who did not fully understand their duties and did not consistently screen personnel and vehicles before granting access.

We recommended the company develop and initiate plan to address the security weakness identified in the report. The plan should establish clear roles and lines of accountability, resources, timeframes, and performance metrics to assess progress.