For Immediate Release
July 7, 2000

Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office

Today the FBI for the third consecutive year issued to its employees and made public a report on discipline imposed by its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) during Fiscal Year 1999 for misconduct by FBI employees.

The report is issued annually to remind FBI employees about the Bureau's standards of conduct. It reflects the policy of Director Louis J. Freeh that the FBI's 28,200 employees are guided by articulated core values that include rigorous obedience to the Constitution, respect for the dignity of all, compassion, fairness and uncompromising personal and professional integrity.

OPR's staff of 28 Supervisory Special Agents and 41 support personnel conducts about one-fourth of the investigations of employees for serious misconduct. The remainder is carried out by Special Agents in other parts of the FBI under OPR oversight. During Fiscal Year 1999, 278 employees were disciplined, or 1.1% of the FBI's total workforce. Fourteen employees were dismissed and 264 received lesser punishment.

One of the prominent issues addressed in this report is Sexual Harassment and Sexually Offensive conduct. Allegations of sexual harassment or sexually offensive conduct involved five employees in FY 1999, down from 21 in FY 1998. The severity of the penalties connected with these actions demonstrates the seriousness with which the FBI views this type of misconduct. In one of his first memoranda to All Employees, Director Freeh stated:

"I firmly believe that there is no place in the work environment of the FBI for discrimination or harassment of any nature....I expect all employees to conduct themselves in a professional manner in all work environs and in all their dealings with our other employees and those individuals outside the FBI with whom they have contact in the course of official business."

Director Freeh further expressed his sentiments in a Memorandum on Maintaining the Public Trust. In that memo Director Freeh states:

"As an FBI employee, you are not expected to do the right thing because it is always easy; on the contrary, doing what is right is sometimes exceedingly difficult... Nonetheless, our ability to adhere to the right path in the face of such adversity defines our individual character and our institutional strength."

Copies of the FY 1999 OPR Disciplinary Report are available to the news media through the FBI's Office of Public and Congressional Affairs.