The Federal Bureau of Investigation has lost or had stolen 160 laptops in four years, including 10 with sensitive or classified information, and one containing personal information on FBI employees, according to a report (PDF) released Monday by the Department of Justice inspector general. In addition, 160 weapons were lost or stolen from the FBI in that same time period.

The audit noted that while the FBI had succeeded in reducing the number of lost and stolen laptops and weapons since a 2002 audit, FBI employees didn’t always report the losses properly.

“Prior to our follow-up audit the FBI did not maintain records indicating which of its laptop computers actually contained sensitive or classified information,” the report said. “Moreover, during this follow-up review, the FBI could not identify for us the contents of many of the lost and stolen laptops, including whether they contained sensitive or classified information.”

Two of the laptops contained sensitive but unclassified information, and eight contained classified information. But the FBI could not determine whether 43 of the 160 contained sensitive or classified information, the report said.

The results are an improvement on findings in a similar audit in 2002, which reported that 354 weapons and 317 laptops were lost or stolen at the FBI over about two years. They follow the high-profile losses last year of laptops containing personal information from the Veterans Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

In a statement yesterday, FBI Assistant Director John Miller emphasized that the report showed “significant progress in decreasing the rate of loss for weapons and laptops” at the FBI. — Washington Post

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) was not impressed. “‘Making progress’ may seem like a win for the FBI, but it’s unacceptable when you’re talking about lost weapons and computers with sensitive information,” he said.

The FBI has more than 20,000 laptops and more than 50,000 weapons in its inventory, the report said.

“We acknowledge more needs to be done to ensure the proper handling of the loss and theft of weapons and laptops and the information maintained on them,” said Assistant FBI Director John Miller. — CNN

The report also noted that of the 160 missing weapons, seven of them had been recovered. Many of the weapons were stolen from FBI agents’ vehicles and homes. In some cases, agents simply left them behind at restaurants, grocery stores and restrooms. Eight of them were brazenly stolen from an FBI SWAT van during the 2005 Super Bowl.

So much for gun control.