US Law Enforcement Agents Speak Out!
Sixty-one percent of law enforcement agents employed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service responded to a survey conducted by the US-based organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Wildlife agents reported serious problems - ranging from obstruction of justice by agency managers and political interference with agency decision-making.
IPPL has for over two decades tried to get the Division of Law Enforcement of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to take cases of primate trafficking seriously. Many cases were dropped with no action taken. In other cases, such as the "Bangkok Six" orangutan smuggling case, it was very hard to shake the obvious agency inertia.
Among the PEER findings:
* More than half the responding agents reported first-hand experience of managers "interfering with an investigation in order to protect a prominent individual or powerful group."
* 81% of the respondents said that agency "managers overseeing investigations often inject political considerations into what should be strictly law enforcement decisions."
* 95% of the respondents agreed that expenditures and staffing are insufficient to meet the agency's wildlife protection mission.
* More than 75% of the agents felt that "hunting groups exercise disproportionate influence" over agency decision-making.
* Only 5% of agents thought law enforcement is improving. 75% thought it is getting worse.
Justice Department statistics show that criminal referrals from the US Fish and Wildlife Service dropped by 52% between 1992 and 1996 and that prosecutions dropped by 43%.
One agent commented to PEER:
Increasingly we look the other way at violations as we realize nothing will be done by our supervisors.
Another commented:
Big cases, big problems. Little cases, little problems. No cases, no problems.
The survey showed deep alienation between US Fish and Wildlife Service agents and agency leaders. Over 60% of agents feared "job-related retaliation for raising concerns" about agency problems. Less than 10% stated that morale was "good." Surprisingly, more than half the agents thought that wildlife law enforcement should be removed entirely from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and transferred to another agency.
Here are the agents' responses to several of PEER's questions.
* Expenditures and staffing in the Law Enforcement program have kept pace with the growth in other Fish and Wildlife Service programs.
0% strongly agree
0% agree
1% don't know
20% disagree
79% strongly disagree
* Expenditures and staffing in the Law Enforcement program have kept pace with the needs of wildlife protection.
0% strongly agree
0% agree
2% don't know
34% disagree
64% strongly disagree
* The Law Enforcement program is sufficiently staffed to fulfill its wildlife protection mission.
0% strongly agree
3% agree
2% don't know
24% disagree
71% strongly disagree
* I feel that Fish and Wildlife Service leadership adequately supports the Law Enforcement program.
0% strongly agree
10% agree
13% don't know
39% disagree
38% strongly disagree
* Increasingly, Fish and Wildlife Service regional managers overseeing law enforcement operations lack field experience.
37% strongly agree
43% agree
9% don't know
10% disagree
1% strongly disagree
* I have confidence in the leadership of law enforcement managers to whom I report.
4% strongly agree
34% agree
8% don't know
35% disagree
19% strongly disagree
* I feel that my Law Enforcement management would back me up in a "tough case."
4% strongly agree
21% agree
28% don't know
28% disagree
19% strongly disagree
* I think that the Law Enforcement Division should be removed from the Fish and Wildlife Service and instead become part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or a separate agency unto itself.
51% yes
16% don't know
33% no
* In my experience, law enforcement managers have, for political reasons, interfered with an investigation in order to protect a prominent individual or a powerful group.
52% yes
27% don't know
21% no
* Morale within the Law Enforcement Division is --
0% excellent
9% good
27% fair
51% poor
13% extremely poor
* Chief Kevin Adams is providing able leadership to the Law Enforcement Division.
6% strongly agree
22% agree
40% don't know
18% disagree
14% strongly disagree
* I fear job-related retaliation for raising concerns about the conduct of the Law Enforcement program.
19% strongly agree
42% agree
18% don't know
18% disagree
3% strongly disagree
Agents Speak out!
Here are some of the individual agents' comments.
"Field agents are given suspensions from work for speaking out on the truth of the resource issues. Good agents are given poor performance reviews, isolated from assignments, force transferred, and other administrative sanctions are used by this current management. This division has gone from agents who believe in protecting the resource to agents protecting themselves. Law enforcement needs to be taken from the regions to a central or national supervision in its own division."
"Bringing the division together as one unit. Currently we are eight different regions administered eight different ways. We could again become the strong, productive, and influential world leader in wildlife law enforcement if we were a separate organization with a budget the American people would expect us to have!"
"Our technological branch, computer information system has been and still is a joke and almost completely ineffective, while more and more day to day administrative duties are placed upon the agents who, instead of buying office supplies and typing — should be conducting investigations."
"I love my job and the personal rewards it brings. However, I despise the agency I work for. They see no benefit of law enforcement and make no effort to seek out the benefits of law enforcement."
"The current Regional Directorate has shown they will not support the agents when they are right in enforcing the law. They would rather punish the agent - when the agent has done nothing wrong - than face the political pressure put on by special interest groups and tell them they must comply with the law. We no longer do law enforcement, but cater to special interest groups desires."
"The political aspect of wildlife management is getting involved in the day to day work of the Special Agent. It is increasing the danger to agents as we attempt to enforce the law, but know that if anything goes wrong - we will have no support from above."
"Kevin Adams as Chief is a real problem. He caves in to political pressure, and sells the agents and resource out."
"It's a sad situation when the most advanced wildlife law enforcement agency in the world can't afford to put gas in vehicles or agents on the road."
"The Law Enforcement program is weak and lacks serious funding, field agents still borrow equipment from other agencies to follow through with investigations. Law Enforcement Offices need, their own recording devices, tape recorders, video recorders, copy machines, night vision, GPS [global positioning] systems, undercover training, etc. Fish and Wildlife Service Law Enforcement needs management that is strictly law enforcement oriented all the way from first line supervisors to Washington, DC."
ADAMS DENIES INTERFERENCE IN BABY MONKEY CASE
Kevin Adams, Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Law Enforcement, has denied that political considerations have led to the apparent inaction in the case of a series of shipments of monkeys from Indonesia that reached the United States in 1997.
A series of shipments of crab-eating macaques shipped by the Inquatex animal dealing firm to the South Carolina firm LABS contained baby monkeys as young as 3-4 weeks old, in violation of US humane shipment regulations. Many of the monkeys were listed as "captive-bred"and 15-16 years old, before most of Indonesia's breeding facilities existed.
After reading the PEER report, IPPL contacted Adams to ask whether political considerations were interfering with the handling of the still unresolved "Baby Monkey" case.
Adams stated:
Have I "caved in" to...pressure and thwarted this investigation? No. There is no political pressure, the investigation is progressing, and we are meeting our responsibility to the resource and the public...Please be assured that our agents continue to pursue the investigation of the 1997 monkey shipments.
Frequently US Fish and Wildlife Service employees refer to wildlife as "the resource" as if all wildlife is here on earth for human benefit of some kind. IPPL is totally opposed to this concept. Animals are wonderful beings with whom we share this earth and who have every right to be here and, in most cases, were here before humans were here and are worse off since humans came on the scene!
