IG urges better post-disaster data sharing

The Homeland Security Department inspector general is urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to streamline information sharing to help law enforcement agencies locate missing children, registered sex offenders and fugitive felons during disasters.

A report released by the IG this week showed that after Hurricane Katrina, law enforcement agencies struggled to get information from FEMA that would have helped them track down missing children and criminals. Among those missing after the storm were 5,000 children, more than 2,000 sex offenders and a number of fugitive felons.

The FBI, New Orleans district attorney's office and state and local law enforcement agencies had to go through a time-consuming process to gain access to FEMA's disaster recovery assistance files. The agencies were not granted direct access due to FEMA's concerns about improperly disclosing information protected by the 1974 Privacy Act.

According to the report, FEMA took five to 12 days on average to fulfill law enforcement requests for information. Some requests took as many as 35 days.

An FBI official cited in the report said the lag in information-sharing was particularly frustrating in the case of missing children investigations, because 99 percent of children murdered after they're abducted die within the first 24 hours they are missing.

Since Katrina, DHS and the Justice Department have struck several limited agreements that would grant law enforcement officials the ability to access FEMA files directly during an emergency. So far, however, the agreements cover fraud and missing children investigations, but do not grant wider access to help agencies track down displaced criminals.

The report recommended that FEMA develop more agreements with Justice to allow appropriate law enforcement officials direct access for a wider range of safety and security reasons, including determining the whereabouts of sex offenders and fugitive felons.

In a response to the report, FEMA said it agrees that direct access to limited information is appropriate if law enforcement entities meet a series of prerequisites. FEMA would require agencies to enter into a memorandum of agreement, meet federal electronic systems security and identity verification requirements, and train all authorized employees in FEMA's systems. FEMA stated that it would be appropriate to grant only limited, "read-only" access to the information directly necessary for the agency's specific law enforcement purpose.

FEMA officials said they are working with Justice to develop protocols, procedures and processes to facilitate data-sharing during disasters.

An amendment to the Privacy Act also has hindered fraud investigations by federal inspectors general, according to the report. The Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act forced inspectors general to undergo a time-consuming review and approval process before they could use computer matching to identify recurring improper payments or improperly dispersed funds.

The inspector general noted that only Congress has the authority to exempt agencies, including inspectors general, from the provision. Such exemptions would greatly support inspectors general and law enforcement agencies in identifying fraud in disaster assistance, the report said.