BROKEN SECURITY SYSTEMS AT THE TEXAS GOVERNOR’S MANSION allowed a miscreant to penetrate the property and set a devastating fire that nearly destroyed the entire structure.  (Firegeezer reports HERE, HERE and HERE.)

AP

It was disclosed yesterday that an infra-red motion detection system that covers the grounds has been out of service for four weeks while it was sent away to be overhauled. 

Several sources, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions from supervisors, said DPS officials balked at the cost of deploying additional state troopers when the infrared monitoring system broke down.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Some troopers complained they could not adequately monitor the mansion grounds without the alarm system working.

“Had it been working, you would have known that somebody had entered the property right away,” said one of them, who requested anonymity. “If they fixed that alarm, (the fire) might not have happened.”

DPS troopers “are as upset about (the mansion fire) as everybody else is,” said Austin lawyer Don Dickson, who represents the Texas State Troopers Association.

“Equipment failures are not uncommon at the DPS,” Dickson said. “We have troopers all over Texas who have been notifying their supervisors that their cameras don’t work or this doesn’t work or that doesn’t work. And it’s hell getting them replaced.”

Dickson confirmed that “one of my clients notified (DPS superiors) that the infrared system was inoperable.”

It was also disclosed that several video security cameras at the Governor’s Mansion also were not working.  “Had all the cameras been working, (troopers) would have had better camera angles,” one of the sources familiar with the system said.

Read the full story in the Chronicle HERE.

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