More Powers for the FBI?

This posting was based upon the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/us/...

If you have read my previous posts, you would realize that despite my career as an FBI Agent, I am concerned about far-reaching government powers. I believe that we can fight an effective and aggressive war on terrorism and crime without sacrificing the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution. My favorite quote is from Abraham Lincoln: "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Recently, the FBI announced that it is granting its agents new powers to investigate potential terrorism. The article’s verbiage: “…significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents…” is disconcerting.

However, as discussed in the referenced article, these are not really new powers. Laws are not being changed. Neither the President nor Congress is bestowing additional powers to the FBI. Instead, the FBI is tweaking its internal processes. So the issue is not the FBI’s investigative powers, but how they use those powers – and how they apply them before determining if criminal/terrorist activity is afoot.

The FBI must have the ability to “snoop around” a little bit when faced with the possibility of crime. To remain strictly in the reactive mode, responding only after an event, is asking for trouble, vis-à-vis 9/11.

However, the gathering of intelligence on groups and individuals not actively committing a crime, has always been a sensitive subject, and one that has gotten the FBI in to trouble in the past.
While I find some aspects of the new rules troubling, I do not see them as a true threat to our privacy and constitutional rights. Here is where I see potential problems:

Trash Covers – this is nothing new. Police have often searched the trash of individuals suspected of criminal activity. The law has always recognized that once you put your trash by the curb, you no longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy. But using this method to develop informants is not appropriate. The FBI is very reliant upon informants and there has always been pressure on agents to develop informants. Citizens do not like being pressured to become informants. What is the purpose of a trash cover to develop informants? Blackmail? There will be a backlash and I see this process eventually being discontinued.

Searching databases – this method is one that I never had many concerns with. Looking at information that is readily available seems to be a fairly innocuous investigative step. However, if agents are not required to document a reason for these searches and/or receive supervisory approval, I see problems more for the FBI than the public. The FBI has always had a strict hierarchy and system of approvals. While sometimes this was administratively burdensome, it was a good process. I suspect within a year or two, the FBI will find that a lack of internal controls has resulted in wasted time and resources and inappropriate uses of these databases. The FBI will probably return to a system of supervisory controls.

The changes outlined in the article should and will be monitored. The Department of Justice Inspector General’s Office will probably audit the FBI’s compliance with these new rules in a year or two. Instances of non-compliance will be noted. The FBI will promise to make changes. A year or two later, there will be another audit. If the problems still exist, then the FBI will be compelled to make changes.

Why do I predict these series of events? After 24 years in the FBI, I know that the more things change, the more they stay the same.