Bureau of Prisons Employees Used Badges to Improperly Obtain Firearms for Personal Use, Watchdog Finds
U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons employees used their work credentials to buy guns for personal use, even when not authorized to carry a firearm at work, according to a watchdog report released this week.
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) notified the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of its concerns on 27 May following an investigation into its policy to provide nearly all its employees with badges and law enforcement or law enforcement officer credentials. Some employees then, in violation of other BOP policies, used those same credentials to purchase firearms for personal use—sometimes bypassing requirements to obtain local permits.
In some instances, employees tried to take advantage of their badges and credentials. A few of these employees were criminally prosecuted because they showed their BOP credentials or badges to law enforcement during traffic stops to evade apprehension for other crimes. Other individuals used their BOP credentials to obtain firearms that they otherwise would not have been able to purchase.
In one case, a BOP employee, who was not certified to carry a firearm, purchased a pistol using BOP law enforcement credentials. The employee successfully bought the gun just over a year after the results of a National Instant Criminal Background Check System check denied an earlier attempt to buy a firearm.
“Although BOP policy did not permit these employees to use their credentials to purchase firearms, the fact that the BOP issued them the credentials with law enforcement markings—and no additional markings to indicate whether the employees were authorized [to] carry firearms—facilitated the purchases and impaired prosecutions of these employees,” the OIG explained in its investigatory report.
The watchdog also added that BOP’s policies on credential markings and use lack clarity, which enhances the risk that employees will misuse the credentials and badges to purchase firearms in violation of U.S. state laws.
“Credentials with law enforcement markings and badges generally signify that the holder is a qualified law enforcement officer authorized by their agency to carry a firearm, and that the holder has regularly qualified in the use of firearms,” the OIG said in a memo that accompanied the report.
The BOP did not respond to Security Management’s request for comment on this article. But in a March 2023 interview with the OIG referenced in the investigatory report, a BOP official said issuing all employees badges was an effort to “bring about espirit de corps to build morale of the workforce.”
This policy is problematic, however, because badges are distributed to employees who have not been trained or authorized to carry firearms at work—such as chaplains, dentists, and physicians. For staff that are authorized to carry firearms at work, the BOP does not have a policy requiring them to relinquish their badges for failing to maintain their firearms qualification.
The OIG recommended that the BOP update its policies and training to clarify appropriate and prohibited use of employee credentials and badges. It also recommended that the BOP ensure that only employees who are authorized to carry a firearm receive credentials with law enforcement markings. Alternatively, the OIG recommended that the BOP add limitations to the credentials of BOP employees who are not eligible or authorized to carry a firearm that they are not permitted to carry a firearm.
The BOP agreed to clarify its policies and training for employees on the use of credentials. But it pushed back on some of these recommendations. BOP Director William K. Marshall, III, wrote in his response to the OIG’s findings that limiting law enforcement officer credentials, signifying an employee’s law enforcement officer status, to only employees authorized to carry a firearm conflicts with the “legal definitions of a law enforcement officer and impinges on the BOP’s ability to credential its employees accordingly for proper administration of their duties.”
Marshall also argued that implementing the OIG’s recommendations would pose major logistical and fiscal challenges for bureau staff. For example, BOP human resources would have to issue separate credentials for employees that are law enforcement officers but not firearm qualified. Human resources staff would also have to regularly monitor changes in employees’ firearm qualification status and issue different credentials accordingly.
“This would also be a financial issue for staffing and the cost of credentials,” Marshall explained. “Each credential costs approximately $12, and the BOP employs over 32,000 law enforcement officers. Medical waivers and lack of funds are some of the reasons why a given law enforcement officer would not complete the annual firearms training.”
The OIG explained in its investigatory report that it was aware of the logistical and financial challenges that changing BOP policy on credentialing could have. But by changing the policy, BOP would be addressing the significant risks associated with issuing law enforcement officer credentials to employees who are generally unqualified to carry a firearm.
“The nature of those significant risks are evidenced in the examples provided in the OIG’s memorandum,” according to the report. “…those examples are not hypothetical or unlikely. They occurred, and fortunately, did not have dire consequences. However, it is not difficult to imagine a tragic use of a firearm by an employee who was not qualified by the BOP to carry a firearm, but who used their BOP credential improperly to obtain one.”
The OIG also added that current BOP policies and broad issuance of law enforcement officer credentials to personnel makes it difficult to hold employees accountable when they purchase firearms illegally using those credentials.
“The OIG made this recommendation because we consider the risk to the public of employees who are unqualified to obtain a firearm using a BOP LEO (law enforcement officer) credential to obtain a firearm illegally to significantly outweigh the logistical and fiscal challenges identified by the BOP,” the report explained.
OIG’s findings were released during a moment when the BOP is experiencing a staffing crisis. In March 2026, Security Management identified that the BOP had approximately 11,800 corrections officers on staff—down from a peak of about 20,000 in the mid-2010s. The staffing challenges have led the BOP to lean heavily on a policy called augmentation, where noncorrectional staff are used to fill correctional officer duties during periods of short staffing.
