FBI not reaching out to local law enforcement, Baltimore officials say

Despite the FBI's talk about the importance of information-sharing between federal and local law enforcement agencies, it has done a poor job of tapping local law enforcement officials for help in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner.

The nation's top law enforcement agency has not shared enough intelligence on terrorists with Baltimore's police department, said Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris during a hearing before a House Government Reform subcommittee last Friday. The FBI also has not asked the city's police department for help in tracking down the more than 260,000 tips it has received since Sept. 11, according to O'Malley and Norris. "The FBI has yet to ask our police department to follow-up on a single lead or tip," O'Malley said during a hearing on the government's ability to prepare for and respond to a bioterrorist attack. "Law enforcement cooperation is not nearly what it should be, given what is at stake." Norris emphasized that all levels of law enforcement need to do a "dramatically better job of collecting and sharing intelligence," but he also criticized the FBI for not taking advantage of law enforcement manpower at the local level to help in tracking down leads. "Neither we, nor any other local law enforcement agency we know of, has been asked to contribute manpower in any broadly coordinated way," Norris said. There are about 12,000 FBI agents nationwide and nearly 650,000 local law enforcement officers across the country. The criticism by O'Malley and Norris came a day after Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller publicly thanked state and local law enforcement officials for their help in tracking leads associated with the terrorist attacks. "State and local law enforcement are playing a critical role collecting information, running down leads, and providing the kind of expertise critical to an effort of this magnitude and of this importance," Mueller said. "Information-sharing between us all is as important now as it ever has been, and anything and everything that helps facilitate that is really welcome." But, according to Norris, the FBI did not provide his police department with any pictures, physical descriptions or addresses of the suspected terrorists in the week after the attacks. Special Agent Peter A. Gulotta of the FBI's Baltimore field office said the special agent in charge of the Baltimore division has been in regular contact with Norris since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and added that his office has an "excellent working relationship" with the city's police department. O'Malley acknowledged in his testimony that city officials were meeting daily with federal authorities to obtain intelligence. "We are not withholding any information from them that that we would also be privy to," Gulotta said. Gulotta, who noted many of the leads in the criminal investigation of the Sept. 11 incidents were "extremely sensitive," said the FBI's Baltimore office has reached out to the city's police department and will soon be seeking more assistance from them in gathering intelligence. The FBI is the lead agency for coordinating law enforcement activities according to the federal government's interagency plan for handling domestic terrorism. The plan emphasizes the importance of cooperation and communication among federal, state and local governments. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Ashcroft directed every U.S. attorney's office in the country to establish task forces with representatives from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to share information with one another on suspected terrorists and to monitor any local terrorist networks.