Archive
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Document Name: Law Enforcement (6 of 23)
Date: 09/01/94
Owner: National Performance Review
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Title: Standards for Our Customers: Law Enforcement (6 of 23)
Author: Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review
Date: September, 1994
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CUSTOMER GROUP: Law Enforcement
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Protecting the public is one of the most fundamental and important
jobs of government. Many federal agencies directly enforce laws, but
they also help state and local law enforce-ment agencies in their
efforts. State and local law enforcement agencies are the front line
for combating crime on the street. These law enforcement agencies, in
turn, are the customers for many federal law enforcement
organizations.
Consider, for example, the Community Relations Service of the
Department of Justice, which helps communities reduce ethnic tension
and prevent racial conflict. When Senior Conciliation Specialist
Vermont McKinney saw the videotape of the Rodney King beating, he
called the Los Angeles Police Department and community leaders and
offered his help.
McKinney spent the next few weeks opening the lines of communication
among the key players. He and Regional Director Julian Klugman later
convened a three-day summit with 40 community leaders and 40 law
enforcement agents. Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams says
that as bad as the riots were, they would have been a lot worse
without Justice's help.
The Community Relations Service was especially helpful, Williams
adds, in bringing together police and local gang leaders to negotiate
a truce. "The truce and other efforts have reduced street-related
gang killings and violence significantly," says Williams. "At the
time, clearly this was not a very popular event among police
officers. . . . We couldn't have done it without the Justice
Department. . . . There are still a lot of problems with gangs in Los
Angeles, but we've cut down on the violence, and now we can work on
other issues."
Davis L. Rodgers, Sr., President of the Watts Branch of the NAACP,
notes that Justice did a good job at working at the grass-roots
community level. "They were continually asking if we thought there
was going to be more trouble and asked what could be done to prevent
it," he says. "They listened to everything we had to say."
In the words of Eleanor R. Montano, President of Mothers and Men
Against Gangs, who has been working for decades to prevent violence:
"Sometimes you just need an outside party to help. Someone who is
seen as objective, that people will listen to."
State and Local Support
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Many other Department of Justice agencies also have customers at the
state and local level. Justice manages about $1 billion in annual
funding that goes to state and local organizations. Under the
provisions of the recently enacted crime bill, Congress authorized
over $30 billion for law enforcement efforts mostly at the state and
local level. The money is to be paid from a special fund in fiscal
years 1995 through 2000.
Justice also provides assistance in day-to-day police work. For
example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Crime
Information Center, a computerized information system that has data
on wanted persons and stolen property, provides information for more
than 74,000 federal, state, and local police officers in all 50
states. The FBI also analyzes fingerprints. Police departments
nationwide depend on these services; each day the FBI receives
100,000 electronic requests for information, 35,000 fingerprint card
requests, and 14,000 written updates to criminal history files.
In focus groups conducted by Justice, state and local law enforcement
officials asked for better coordination and faster response to
requests for information on suspects. Right now, the FBI can't
respond to requests as fast as its customers want. But the bureau is
telling customers what they can expect. Current response time for
name searches against criminal histories is five seconds. Fingerprint
identification takes about 21 days. A new FBI rapid response system,
which is scheduled to be on-line by early 1997, will receive and
process electronic fingerprint images, criminal histories, and
related data within the response times local agencies need. The FBI
also interviewed 485 criminal justice administrators and sent
questionnaires to 2,670 criminal justice agencies nationwide to get
feedback on how to improve its database system; it plans to have
improvements in place by 1996.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms runs the National Tracing
Center, which tracks information about firearms used in crimes. The
center handled more than 50,000 requests in fiscal year 1993 and
expects over 70,000 for fiscal year 1994. The center helps law
enforcement agencies by developing leads on suspicious characters who
may be involved in firearms trafficking. The center is researching
new computer software that will provide information more quickly. The
bureau's customer service standards call for completing urgent
firearms traces within 24 hours and routine traces within four weeks.
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Highlights from Customer Service Standards:
FBI's National Crime Information Center
FBI expects to provide better service in 1996 when its new NCIC
system is available. Current and future customer service standards
for NCIC are:
--- Customers will be able to access the system 24 hours a day, 7
days a week (currently available).
--- The system will process NCIC inquiries in one second or less.
Current NCIC processing is two seconds.
--- Users will be able to conduct on-line queries for information
that is now available only through special computer programming.
--- Users will be able to receive photograph and fingerprint images
on-line in police cruisers (currently not available).
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Direct Enforcement
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Besides supporting state and local authorities, federal agencies
directly enforce a wide range of statutes. The FBI combats organized
crime, narcotics, terrorism, white-collar crime, foreign
counterintelligence, and violent crime. The Drug Enforcement
Administration handles international and major narcotics cases. Other
agencies have law enforcement components -- for example, the Internal
Revenue Service for tax evasion, the Customs Service for smuggling,
the Secret Service for counterfeiting, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms for guns, and the Department of Health and Human
Services for Medicare fraud. In addition, the Justice Department has
an extensive network of prosecuting attorneys in Washington, D.C.,
and throughout the country with a U.S. Attorney in every judicial
district. And Justice manages federal prisons throughout the nation.
Customer service is a complicated concept for these direct law
enforcement activites. Federal law enforcement agencies bring
criminals to justice, save the taxpayers billions of dollars, and
work to prevent crime. In these roles, they see the general public as
their primary customer. The contributions they make are clear. Health
care fraud, for example, is costing taxpayers about $10 billion a
year, according to the 1992 U.S. General Accounting Office study
Health Insurance: Vulnerable Payers Lose Billions to Fraud and Abuse
(HRD-92-96). Not only are unscrupulous people charging bogus fees,
they are using substandard medical equipment in delicate medical
procedures. The Justice Department and the Inspector General of
Health and Human Services are aggressively pursuing these cases. In
one case, a well-known laboratory purposely induced doctors to order
unnecessary lab work. The company president was convicted of fraud,
and the company paid the government $110 million for restitution.
But the job is more than simply chasing crooks. Justice has received
feedback on the need for more assistance for victims and witnesses.
Obviously, the victims are a special subset of the general public
that these organizations exist to serve. Witnesses are essential to
bring criminals to justice. Both victims and witnesses are customers
-- and they have a right to protection and other assistance.
The U.S. Marshals Service runs the Federal Witness Security Program,
which protects witnesses before, during, and after trials. In very
serious cases, a witness and his or her family can be given a new
identity, home, and job, but this kind of dramatic action is rare.
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Highlights from Customer Service Standards:
U.S. Attorneys' Offices
If you are a victim or a witness --
--- To the extent possible, a separate waiting area will be provided
for you separate from the offender and defense witnesses during court
proceedings.
--- Emotional support and assistance will be provided to you during
court appearances.
--- Upon your request, you will be assisted in talking with your
employer if your cooperation in the investigation or prosecution of
the crime causes you to be absent from work; likewise, if the crime
prohibits your ability to make timely payments to creditors,
assistance will be provided to you in dealing with those creditors.
--- You will routinely be provided with information or assistance
concerning transportation, parking, lodging, translator, and related
services.
--- When needed, you will be provided referrals to existing agencies
for shelter, counseling, compensation, and other types of assistance.
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The U.S. Attorneys throughout the nation have established a Victim-
Witness Assistance Program. Justice has published an extensive
handbook to educate victims and witnesses, and each U.S. Attorney has
a Victim-Witness Coordinator who answers questions, provides
emotional support, sees to special needs, and advises of changes in
offender status. The Justice Department is currently reviewing
customer service standards in this area and expects to have them
published by December 1994.
Applying customer service principles to its direct enforcement work
is the challenge that faces Justice and agencies like it. For her
part, Attorney General Janet Reno has committed to expanding law
enforcement customer service standards in investigations as well as
in other areas over the next year.
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Your Standards
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These agencies and offices are publishing customer service standards
for law enforcement. The standards appear in the "Law Enforcement"
section of Appendix B.
Department of Justice
Community Relations Service
Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Attorneys' Offices
Department of the Treasury
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
U.S. Secret Service
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