Pacific Views

Another 'benefit' of Dubya's 'war on terrorism.'

This time, it's a dramatic drop in the number of criminal cases being handled by the FBI.

According to an audit by the US Justice Department's inspector general, non-terror related FBI cases have dropped by half since Dubya's 'war on terror' began. While the FBI opened almost 63 thousand criminal investigations in 2000, that number had dropped to just under 35 thousand in 2004. In addition, there were 2200 fewer field agents assigned to criminal investigations in 2004 than there were four years earlier.

These drops followed Director Robert Mueller's post-9/11 reorganization of the FBI to make fighting terrorists its main job.

[Source: Office of the Inspector General analysis of FBI Automated Case Support data.]

The steepest drops have been in drug investigations [which we can't say bother us all that much] but there were also fewer investigations into traditional areas of FBI concern, such as organized crime and bank robberies. The number of investigations into civil rights, corporate and health care fraud, and public corruption also took a nosedive.

Given the FBI's increasing inability to handle criminal investigations, the burden is shifting to state and local law enforcement agencies. However, these agencies are having trouble filling the gap, notes the audit, especially where complex financial investigations are involved. [We'd note that decreasing federal aid to law enforcement and state/local budget problems are causing crimes to go uninvestigated as well.]

You can read the inspector general's audit [in PDF form] here. The audit has been edited to remove 'sensitive law enforcement information.'

Via Reuters and Paper Chase.

Posted by Magpie at October 4, 2005 02:39 AM | War on Terrorism | Technorati links |