NEW JERSEY (WABC) — An Eyewitness News exclusive investigation has uncovered a disturbing secret involving New Jersey state troopers — an alarming number of trooper weapons are missing.

But where they might have ended up is the frightening part.

Unlike New York, New Jersey State Police deserves credit for providing some information about how many service weapons have been lost or stolen in recent years. And while New Jersey officials insist this is not a problem, the agency refused to provide details about how the guns were stolen and whether any have been recovered or used in a crime.

For years, New Jersey’s Attorneys General have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying back guns.

"We’re going to continue doing everything in our power to make communities safer by getting guns off the streets," AG Jeffrey Chiesa said.

But while the state’s top law enforcer touts getting guns off the streets, 17 state police troopers have lost track of their weapons in the past eight years.

Through an open records request and an analysis of state police annual reports, Eyewitness News has learned that from 2006 to 2013, state police troopers have either lost or had their service weapons stolen 17 times.

"This does raise some alarm bells here," retired NYPD Captain Dr. John Eterno said.

Dr. Eterno says while that many stolen and missing guns from a statewide law enforcement agency might seem insignificant, it deserves close scrutiny.

"We have basic information that guns are missing from these officers," he said. "Some are stolen, some not. But we need far more information to query them about what’s been done about this."

The documents New Jersey State Police provided were heavily redacted, with key information on how the weapons were stolen — whether they were taken from a car, from a home, from a locker — blacked out.

"You might want to know, were they negligent in their weapon safe-guarding?" Dr. Eterno said. "And if they were negligent, that becomes an issue, becomes a key issue not just for the public in terms of safety, but also for the department."

It is unclear if any of the guns were recovered or if they were ever used in a crime. It has happened before, back in 2005, when two men were arrested for firing shots toward a Pennsylvania mall.

The bullets shattered a Macy’s department store window. The gun used traced back to one stolen from the car of a New Jeresey State Police trooper. It’s something that doesn’t surprise retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms special agent Matthew Horace.

"When a gun is stolen from a police officer, that gun becomes a crime gun," he said. "And my expectation as an ATF agent is once a gun becomes a crime gun, it’s going to be used in a crime somewhere, someday."

A police spokesman says that with 2,500 troopers, the theft or loss of 17 guns in eight years shows "that our record for securing our weapons is very strong, and Captain Stephen Jones says the department has "very strict policies regarding the storage and securing of our weapons."

But is that enough?

"If you lose a gun, and under irresponsible circumstances, you will be disciplined," Horace said. "And the discipline is swift and severe."

The spokesman said that if a trooper loses his weapon or fails to safeguard it, he or she will likely be suspended without pay for one week.

Eyewitness News filed the same Freedom of Information request for stolen gun data with the New York State Police back in January, but so far, no information has been provided.

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FLINT, MI — The Flint Police Department can’t find 22 of its firearms and has had 17 stolen over the years, a complete inventory shows, according to a news release from the department.

On Feb. 9, the Flint Police Department conducted a full inventory of its firearms. The review had two goals — first, administrators wanted a complete accounting of all firearms related to the Flint Police Department, both past and present. Secondly, the administration wanted to understand the current inventory situation in an effort to establish procedures moving forward, according to the release.

It was discovered during the review that prior to the February review, there was no procedure in place that mandated regular weapons inventories, and the inventories that did occur were limited. The department found no documentation of a complete inventory in the last 30 years, although there was documentation of a partial inventory in 2003, according to the release.

Prior to February’s inventory, it was believed the police department had 30 firearms unaccounted for from a 2003 inventory. During the Feb. 9 inventory, officers located 13 firearms, from the 30 that were missing, which were reported stolen in 2003, according to the release.

During the full inventory, officers were unable to locate 22 firearms in addition to the 17 already reported stolen and unaccounted for, covering a period from 1996 until the present. The missing firearms listed in the release are:

• 29 shotguns — eight reported stolen, 21 reported missing (no documentation as to when the Flint Police Department received these weapons, which were manufactured in the early 1980s).
• 1 M3 .45 SMG — reported missing (issued to the Flint Police Department in 1959).
• 4 Smith & Wesson 9mm handguns — all reported stolen.
• 4 Sig Saur 9mm handguns — all reported stolen.
• 1 M&P .45 caliber handgun — reported stolen.

Going forward, procedures have already been put into place that mandate a full accounting of the department’s firearm inventory twice per year, according to the release.

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Flint — Poor record keeping, break-ins and questionable gun storage practices allowed firearms to disappear from the Flint police department and some of those guns have been used in crimes elsewhere in Michigan, records show.

The Flint Police Department conducted a full inventory of its firearms this year. During the inventory, officers were unable to locate 22 guns in addition to 17 reported stolen and unaccounted for, from 1996 until now.

Chief James Tolbert said he has established policies to ensure the problem doesn’t continue. With 516 firearms registered in the Flint arsenal, Tolbert said the city is working to shrink the number of guns on hand to better reflect its department’s size.

The city has 200 service pistols, 136 shotguns, 78 AR-15s and other guns for its 114 officers. Tolbert said he wants to research what firearms his officers need and find ways to eliminate the guns that the department no longer uses.

“Why do we need them?” Tolbert asked.

The Flint Journal obtained police department records through the Freedom of Information Act that detail what happened with some of the weapons.

In one case, a Flint officer in August 2013 had his .45-caliber service pistol under the driver’s seat of his SUV while in Lansing, records said. His vehicle broke down and, after he left the scene, the gun and holster were stolen from the locked vehicle.

The officer was disciplined. About a month later, a 15-year-old boy found the gun near a store in Jackson, records show. He and another boy used the gun to rob a drug dealer and, as they ran away, the gun went off and the other boy was shot in the leg.

The records also detail how another Flint officer’s gun ended up in the hands of Detroit police after it was used in a crime there.

In 1994, a 9 mm service pistol was stolen from a school liaison officer’s official vehicle while she was working near Flint Central High School. The records indicate the theft wasn’t noted until 2002 by the department’s quartermaster, who maintains the department’s inventory.

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The U.S. Park Police is failing to adequately keep track of its firearms, creating an environment in which weapons are vulnerable to theft or misuse, according to a government report released Friday.

Due to "a lackadaisical attitude toward firearms management" by commanders, investigators said they found "credible evidence of conditions that would allow for theft and misuse of firearms, and the ability to conceal the fact if weapons were missing."

In a force of approximately 640 officers, the report says, hundreds of weapons were not properly accounted for. The auditors also allege that the agency has more than 1,400 extra weapons, including 477 military-style automatic and semiautomatic rifles.

The head of the Park Police officers’ union, Ian Glick, said there are shortcomings in the "antiquated system of weapon tracking," but public safety was never put in jeopardy.

"None of these weapons were ever seized in a crime, or found on someone who shouldn’t have one," he said. While the tracking system has its failings, he said, "all the weapons are accounted for. Every weapon, every stick of ammo, everything is accounted for. But it’s not accounted for in the National Park Service weapons inventory computer system."

The National Park Service declined to respond to Glick’s specific assertion. But it said it has immediately ordered a complete weapons inventory, to address the "significant, systemic firearms management problems" identified in the report.

National parks face budget cuts National parks face budget cuts 01:21 PLAY VIDEO "I have no tolerance for this management failure," said Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service. He pledged to implement the report’s recommendations on record-keeping, and went on to praise the police officers. "The brave men and women of the U.S. Park Police are professionals who put their life on the line every day," he said, "protecting our parks for millions to enjoy."

The report cited several examples of mishandling of weapons, including two officers it says brought their rifles home with them. But at least one example has come into dispute.

The audit asserts that a former chief of the Park Police never turned in his handgun, and 10 years after his retirement it was taken from him by an instructor at a qualification course for retired law enforcement officers, who happened to notice the former chief still had government property.

But the former chief, Robert Langston, rejects the claim, saying he never kept a handgun, he never had one taken away, and he was never asked by auditors about the allegation. The first he heard of it was when he got a call from CNN on Friday morning.

"Nobody ever confiscated a gun of mine. I would recall that," he said. "Where did they get that?"

He said he turned in his weapon when he left government service, and showed CNN his paperwork.

When asked about the contradiction, the inspector general’s office said its report was based on Park Police records, and the discrepancy just shows the extent of the agency’s record-keeping problems. The National Park Service did not respond to an inquiry about the former chief’s paperwork.

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