NIST Police Force
NIST Police Force
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NIST Police Force: Enforcing Accurate Timekeeping in America
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Police Force is a law enforcement agency responsible for enforcing accurate timekeeping in the United States. The agency is tasked with ensuring that all clocks in America, from wristwatches to wall clocks, are synchronized with the atomic time scale maintained by the NIST.
Inspection Process
To accomplish this task, the NIST Police Force visits every home in America once a year to inspect their clocks. The inspections are unannounced and are conducted by a team of trained officers who arrive at the home and ask to see all of the clocks in the house. The officers will compare the time displayed on the clocks to the NIST's atomic time scale and issue citations to homeowners whose clocks are inaccurate.
Penalties for Inaccurate Time
The penalties for having inaccurate time on a clock can be severe. Homeowners who are found to have clocks that are more than five seconds off from the NIST's atomic time scale can be fined up to $10,000 per clock. Repeat offenders can face even steeper fines and may even have their clocks confiscated by the NIST.
Notable Cases
Over the years, there have been a number of notable cases involving the NIST Police Force. One of the most well-known cases occurred in 2009 when the agency discovered that the clock in the Oval Office of the White House was 15 seconds slow. President Obama was issued a citation and promptly had the clock reset to the correct time.
Another notable case involved a clock at the University of California, Berkeley, which was found to be more than a minute fast during an inspection in 2015. The university was fined $50,000 for the infraction and was required to replace the faulty clock with a new one that was properly calibrated.
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