Balancing Fighting Crime Versus Terrorism

Since 9/11, DOJ has sought to enhance its counterterrorism capabilities by strengthening and restructuring its components, setting new priorities, and developing new investigative and prosecutorial methods while continuing to manage its more traditional law enforcement missions, including efforts to combat organized crime and gangs, drugs and weapons trafficking, violent crime, and white-collar crime. In the years following 9/11, DOJ redirected an additional 7 percent of its operational budget away from fighting traditional crime and its other functions and applied it to counterterrorism efforts. For example, DOJ decreased the number of federal agents allocated for traditional criminal investigations and increased the number allocated for terrorism-related investigations. DOJ has also initiated fewer traditional criminal investigations, and fewer of these matters have been referred for federal prosecution. Recent terrorist events such as the attempted bomb attacks in New York’s Times Square in May 2010 and on board an airliner on Christmas Day 2009 are reminders of the continued threat of terrorism. In addition, DOJ has had to address emerging problems such as mortgage fraud, corporate fraud, and cyber crime including online child pornography. As it seeks to balance and address competing and new priorities, the department faces several key challenges, such as the following:

• GAO has reported that the FBI faced continuing human capital challenges in its transformation efforts to develop its counterterrorism capabilities, including realigning staff from the traditional law enforcement mission to a counterterrorism focus; building and improving intelligence gathering, analytic, and information sharing capabilities; and recruiting employees with specialized skills to fit these new positions. While the FBI has made progress toward transformation, concerns remain about how well the counterterrorism and intelligence missions have been integrated with the FBI's more traditional law enforcement mission and culture. We currently have on-going work assessing staffing vacancies in the FBI’s counterterrorism division and the impact on the division.

  Highlights of GAO-04-578T (PDF), Highlights of GAO-04-817T (PDF)

• In addition, state and local law enforcement expressed concerns about their ability to address some of the gaps these trade-offs have created for battling traditional crimes, given resource constraints and apprehension regarding expertise and jurisdictional authority. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), DOJ was appropriated approximately $ 2.8 billion primarily for state and local grant programs. However, questions remain regarding what will happen with these programs after 2010 and whether these funding levels can be sustained. For example, the Recovery Act’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) is a competitive grant program administered by DOJ that provided $1 billion to law enforcement agencies in fiscal year 2009 to create and preserve jobs and to increase community policing capacity and crime-prevention efforts. CHRP grants to local law enforcement agencies provide 100 percent funding for approved entry-level salaries and benefits for 3 years for newly hired, full-time sworn police officers. While local officials were generally confident they could retain officers hired under CHRP, some expressed concerns that they may need to leave vacant officer positions unfilled and use newly budgeted money to cover the salaries for those positions filled under CHRP. In addition, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, federal investment in local policing has decreased 81 percent since September 11, 2001, thus resulting in fewer police officers and increased crime in many American cities. As GAO reported previously, federal investments in local policing initiatives can result in at least modest decreases in crime levels.

  Highlights of GAO-06-104 (PDF), Full Report GAO-10-604 (PDF)

• In response to the increase in online child pornography crime, multiple federal law enforcement agencies have developed specialized units to address crimes against children, and Congress has passed legislation requiring greater coordination on, and authorizing an increase in resources available to address these crimes. For example, within DOJ, the FBI teams agents and local police in task forces to conduct undercover investigations of suspected offenders. DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) allocates funds to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which serves as a national resource center for information related to crimes against children. The center also maintains the CyberTipline to receive tips on child pornography from electronic service providers and members of the general public. In addition, DOJ has created a National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction in response to legislative requirements. Key to every investigation and prosecution of online child pornography crime is forensic analysis of digital evidence. In April 2011, GAO reported that backlogs in the forensic analysis of digital evidence can delay or hinder online child pornography investigations. Among factors that federal law enforcement officials cited as limiting investigations and prosecutions were variations in the steps that agencies believe enhance the integrity of forensic analysis of digital evidence. In some cases, these steps may increase the time it takes to analyze evidence and add to backlogs and delays.

  Highlights of GAO-11-334 (PDF)

• DOJ's Inspector General reported past challenges with investigative agencies not having sufficient resources to adequately investigate child pornography, human trafficking, and alien smuggling.

  DOJIG-05-37

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

• Monitoring the effects of its trade-off decisions between fighting terrorism and fighting crime and adjusting program and funding priorities will continue to be important for DOJ and Congress, especially given the competing pressures on the federal budget.
• In doing so, it will be important for DOJ to continue to evaluate its needs and commensurate resource levels within each area of the department's investigative operations, including both terrorism- and nonterrorism-related efforts, and translate this information into resource allocations.
• It will continue to be important for the FBI to use effective human capital tools and flexibilities to build its intelligence workforce, such as setting hiring goals for intelligence analysts, ensuring that the allocation of intelligence analysts is based on current and forecasted threats, and taking steps to improve the retention of intelligence analysts.

  Highlights of GAO-04-578T (PDF), Highlights of GAO-04-817T (PDF)

• To help address backlogs in forensic analysis of digital evidence conducted in support of investigations and prosecutions of online child pornography crime, it will be important to assess the costs and benefits of the various steps federal law enforcement agencies believe enhance the integrity of forensic analysis. DOJ’s working group examining forensic issues, due to its multiagency composition, is in a good position to conduct such assessment and help identify possible efficiencies in these steps and provide assurance to law enforcement agencies that scarce forensic resources are being allocated in a way that maximizes their efficiency and effectiveness.

  Highlights of GAO-11-334 (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

Health Care

Recovery Act

Recovery Act

FBI Transformation

FBI Transformation

FBI Transformation

Corporate Crime

Corporate Crime

Community Policing Grants

Combating Child Pornography

Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, The External Effects of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Reprioritization Efforts, 05-37

(Washington, D.C.: September 2005).

DOJIG 05-37

Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Follow-up Audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Efforts to Hire, Train, and Retain Intelligence Analysts, 07-30

(Washington, D.C.: April 2007).

DOJIG 07-30

Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Efforts to Hire, Train, and Retain Intelligence Analysts, 05-20

(Washington, D.C.: May 2005).

DOJIG 05-20

More Reports