North Carolina
North Carolina National Guard Prevents FLIPLs
The NC National Guard used secure storage lockers to decrease Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss (FLIPL) investigations and lost equipment.
When there is no central location to store the property and equipment used by hundreds of soldiers, keeping track of that equipment can certainly be a challenge. For the North Carolina National Guard, a lack of organized storage meant that many of the soldiers in the Guard were required to store their government-issued gear and equipment in their homes. This often resulted in the loss of government property, and in order to determine whether or not a solider was responsible for this lost equipment, a Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss (FLIPL) was conducted.
There are many details and steps that go into a FLIPL, but the bottom line is that these investigations can take up valuable time—and at the end, the equipment still needs to be replaced. “We’d rather just have the gear back,” says North Carolina National Guard MSG Joseph Olive. “It can be a very time-consuming process.”
"Stuff just gets lost in the shuffle sometimes, this is going to make a big difference for us."
- MSG Olive
The Guard knew they needed a system in place that ensure accountability and security of equipment in order to avoid FLIPLs—and the solution came in the form of a locker room in each National Guard Readiness Center throughout the entire state. A military study concluded that over 90% of OCIE (Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment) losses occurred in ranks E1 through E5. By creating these locker rooms, valuable equipment could always remain secure and accounted for.
Through a Request for Quotations for gear lockers, Patterson Pope, an authorized Spacesaver distributor, knew they would be able to help the North Carolina National Guard out with this particular storage challenge, having helped the National Guard with other projects pertaining to their CIF (Central Issue Facility) and records storage areas.
In working with the National Guard, it became imperative that the secure storage lockers for these locker rooms needed to meet a unique size requirement, and Patterson Pope reached out to Spacesaver to engineer a custom military storage locker that was built to accommodate large mobility bags and other equipment. The lockers were based on Spacesaver’s standard FreeStyle Personal Storage Lockers and were outfitted with a perforated mesh door to increase airflow and to obscure the view of the expensive equipment kept inside for added security.
These custom, secure storage lockers have been installed in a variety of National Guard locations throughout the state, and the locker rooms have the potential to save the North Carolina National Guard millions of dollars. “Stuff just gets lost in the shuffle sometimes,” MSG Olive says. “This is going to make a big difference for us.”
Spacesaver offers several storage solutions to help decrease FLIPL investigation. Take a look at our “Avoid FLIPLs” page, or head to our Military Storage Solutions page to see how we’ve been able to help similar organizations with their storage challenges.
