Rep. Towns probes INTERPOL info sharing

Systematic law enforcement information sharing difficulties with INTERPOL was the subject of a May 28 letter from Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) to the Justice and Homeland Security departments.

Towns asked department heads to report on corrective actions taken in response to a September 2009 Justice inspector general report . The report found several information technology and procedural problems at the DOJ and DHS-managed U.S. bureau of the international law enforcement information sharing organization.

"The IG report indicates that much work needs to be done before the U.S. can fully benefit from its status as an Interpol member," Towns wrote.

Among the difficulties cited by the IG report was faulty communications between the U.S. INTERPOL bureau and U.S. state and local liaisons. Although the bureau believed that it had secure electronic communication with the liaisons, several of the connections were not functional, the IG report states.

An INTERPOL messaging application called I-Link meant to eliminate the manual re-entry of INTERPOL notices into American databases was not easy to use and had data integrity and accuracy problems.

The U.S. bureau's case management system, ENVOY, had significant operational issues including stability problems, limited reporting capabilities and no software documentation. Although some of those issues were resolved by the time the IG audit was released, the system continued to lack audit trails.

Foreign notices weren't always inputted into U.S. databases including DHS's Traveler Enforcement Compliance System and the FBI's National Crime Information Center. An examination of 52 foreign crime information notices that met U.S. guidelines for entry into the NCIC showed that about 87 percent of them were not entered. Likewise, of the 92 examined notices that should have been entered into TECS, about 23 percent were not.  

The IG also found that the U.S. bureau often cannot share information with INTERPOL "because it is often not informed of actions taken by its U.S. law enforcement partners."

Towns, in his letter, requested an update on corrective actions by June 11.

For more:
- read Justice OGI report 09-35 on the U.S. INTERPOL bureau (.pdf)
- see Rep. Town's press release and letter (.pdf)

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