From January 2014 through March 2015, the NSA paid for off-duty state troopers to sit in their cruisers on roads outside the agency's data storage warehouse in Bluffdale and ensure no one blocked traffic.
The NSA payments cover overtime rates of about $50 per hour for off-duty troopers, as well as mileage on patrol cars. In total, the NSA has paid the state more than $1.03 million, according to records obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune.
The NSA said it "takes responsible measures to ensure the security of our workforce."
"NSA routinely partners with federal, state and local emergency responders at domestic locations," the agency said in a statement. "For a variety of operational security reasons, NSA does not disclose the full range of these relationships."
Troopers do not conduct any security inside the property, according to Colonel Daniel Fuhr of the highway patrol.
To Fuhr's knowledge, no one has ever tried to block traffic at the Utah Data Center. He said troopers have not made any arrests or citations for interfering with traffic. According to Fuhr, "99% of it is visual deterrence."
An anti-government surveillance group called Restore the Fourth – a reference to the 4th Amendment that prohibits unlawful search and seizure – has staged protests on the road outside the building.
But the NSA said no one incident precipitated the security contract with the highway patrol.
Lorina Potter, a representative for Restore the Fourth, said she has never noticed troopers outside the building, and is unsure why the NSA is paying them to be there.
"I guess it's a preventive measure for something that there's never even been a hint of need for. It's like over-preparation," she told the Associated Press.
The Utah Data Center is a massive storage facility for information on phone calls, emails and online records collected by the NSA. It was reportedly completed in May 2014, although the Agency has been tight-lipped on its status.
