The Interior Department's Inspector General this year criticized the V.I. Police Department and its officers for failing to safeguard the guns assigned to them or placed in their custody. The report said, in part:

• The department on St. Thomas did not perform inventories of service firearms for 11 years.
• The department could not account for 123 of the 635 9 mm handguns purchased in 1990 and 1991 and 9 of the 51 .357 magnum revolvers purchased in 1987.
• A purchase order and invoice for 18 9 mm handguns included 12 that were not listed on the department's inventory records.
• The department purchased 635 9 mm handguns in 1990 and 1991 but could not locate or account for 29 of the guns assigned to St. Thomas-St. John and could not locate 94 of the handguns assigned to St. Croix.
• The department purchased 51 high-power .357 magnum revolvers in 1987. However, department officials could not provide documents concerning the purchase or current distribution of those revolvers, and the guns were not in the department's inventory records.

"In our opinion the frequent occurence of lost or stolen firearms indicated that sufficient efforts were not being made to properly secure and safeguard service firearms."

Inspector General's 1994 report

"The department did not have any policy requiring that disciplinary actions be taken against officers or that officers reimburse the department for the cost of firearms lost or stolen."