By Myles H. Malman[1]
In a Miami Herald article earlier this month, a
significant question concerning the proposed merger of the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the FBI was asked:
“Would a single unit fight drugs more effectively?” My question takes a slightly different
turn: Would a single law enforcement
agency best serve the American people? I
think not; the result would be a tragedy to our free society.
Vice President Al Gore’s National Performance
Review, the government task force that seeks to tinker and putter with our
freedoms, has generated a sweeping proposal that would consolidate all federal
law enforcement activities into the Department of Justice under control of the
attorney general.
This proposal would create a so-called “Directorate
of Central Law Enforcement,” effectively merging the Drug Enforcement
Administration with the FBI and enforcement functions of the Secret Service,
Customs Service, Internal Revenue Service, Postal Service and Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms into one agency.
Is an all-powerful, centralized federal law enforcement
entity really good government? A
Directorate of Central Law Enforcement conjures up vivid imagery of a true
Orwellian state. As the
Our Constitution was devised to protect us from an
imbalance of power in one branch of government.
Checks and balances were carefully established in order to protect our
citizenry from tyranny, abuse and mismanagement. Do we want an all-controlling Directorate of
Central Law Enforcement, headed by an attorney general reporting to the
president? We have fought so hard
against an unfettered executive. Do we
want to just throw that concept away in the name of bureaucratic fiscal
tidiness?
Our current attorney general, Janet Reno, has
certainly won the respect of the American people and, as Miamians know, her
integrity and reputation are without question.
The city, county and country are proud of her. But what does the future hold? What of other attorneys general? What if the reins of power are passed to
someone less scrupulous? The era of J.
Edgar Hoover and Watergate certainly illustrates what can happen when too much
law enforcement power is placed in one person’s hands. Those ghosts all haunt us today. Why seek a return?
Proponents of the merger cite cost savings as a
benefit of this consolidation, particularly the merger of the DEA and the
FBI. Democracy should never be
sacrificed in the name of cost savings.
And what of the notion that the FBI, a
multi-mission agency, can provide more resources and focus to the
Drug enforcement is a proactive, specialized
mission requiring investigators who know how to target and attack the drug
kingpins of the world. Drug
organizations, in order to stay in business, are mobile and fast-moving. Drug deals take place with lightning
quickness. The drug investigators must
be as fast moving and mobile as the criminals they pursue. If the drug enforcement mission is
transferred to the FBI, layers of
bureaucracy will immobilize the
investigators rather than the drug criminals. The drug transaction would be over before the intricate FBI investigative review and approval process ever begins.
Drug enforcement must have the agility to move swiftly and without
undue layers of management
restraint. The DEA, a single-mission agency, should provide leadership to the federal drug
enforcement effort. No federal agency is perfect; all can be improved.
However, DEA agents have proven they are the experts when it comes to drug criminals.
I have firsthand knowledge of
the results the DEA can bring to a prosecutor's table. It is a small agency, only 3,500 agents,
but these
investigators have perfected their investigative
skills in order to fight a very sophisticated
drug trade that is most visible and
most serious in
Law enforcement today needs a diversity of leadership to ensure a checks and balances of its own.
Separate agencies with different
missions is a critical step in ensuring the proper balance of
resources. There must be not only an exchange of ideas, but also healthy competition. In a world of ever sophisticated criminal activity;
we need creative thinkers,
concentrating on specialized missions
in order to ensure a safe future for the
children of
In closing argument at the trial of Manuel Noriega, I told the jury that
Noriega and the cartel
put tons and tons of white powdery death in our community which
kills and is
killing our children. The DEA know how to stop the purveyors of this
white powder.
An all-powerful, monolithic Directorate of Central Law Enforcement, difficult to manage and
impossible to control, is not good
government and would not serve the American people well. The proposed solution is overly simplistic and its consequences are, at least to this American, terrifying.
[1] Myles H. Malman was one of the
lead prosecutors in the case against