Justice report: U.S. Attorneys’ offices unprepared for crises

Many U.S. Attorneys' offices around the country are unprepared to respond to critical incidents ranging from natural disasters to terrorist attacks, the Justice Department's inspector general reported Tuesday.

The offices have failed to fully implement the department's Crisis Management Coordinator Program and provide ongoing crisis management training, Inspector General Glenn Fine said in the report.

"While the first priority of the department is the prevention of terrorism, a commensurate need exists to respond effectively to critical incidents that are not prevented," Fine said. "We found that the critical incident response plans developed by [U.S. Attorneys' offices] were inadequate, that few [offices] have conducted exercises to test their plans, and that training was not sufficient."

The crisis management program was established in 1996 and requires U.S. Attorneys' offices to improve their ability to respond "quickly and appropriately" to critical incidents. The report surveyed all 94 attorneys' offices in the country and found that their plans are inadequate to ensure a quick and appropriate response to terrorist attacks or other incidents.

In 1999, the department identified 48 actions that offices should take when responding to critical incidents, such as coordinating and conducting interviews, managing crime scenes, and deploying resources to FBI command posts.

The report found that only four of 76 plans issued by offices addressed all 48 actions. Eleven offices simply inserted their name into a five-page model plan issued by the department. Three of the plans addressed none of the 48 actions because the office submitted documents other than critical incident response plans. For example, one office submitted the emergency evacuation plan for its building.

The report also found that U.S. Attorneys' offices generally do not conduct regular critical incident response exercises. Only 17 percent of crisis management coordinators said their offices had conducted more than one exercise since 1996.

"Conducting regular exercises, both within a U.S. Attorney's office and with other agencies, to practice crisis response procedures is important to ensure a coordinated and competent response to an actual critical incident," the report said.

The report also found that the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys have not lived up to their responsibilities to administer the crisis management program. They have provided only limited training -- consisting primarily of two national conferences in 1997 and 1999 -- and have not kept guidance up to date as departmental and national policy changed. They also failed to track crisis management plans and maintain them on file.

The report also found the Justice Department overstated the condition of crisis management plans in its annual performance reports, giving attorney's offices the false impression that they were on the right track.

The Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

The report acknowledged that some steps are being taken to fix problems. The department has issued more specific guidance to U.S. Attorneys' offices on developing plans, has begun testing enhanced Web-based information resources, and has started reviewing plans and providing feedback to U.S. Attorneys' offices. In addition, the department has scheduled preparedness and response training for crisis management coordinators in March 2004.