For Immediate Release
August 6, 1999

Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office

The Federal Bureau of Investigation today issued a report on discipline imposed by its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) during Fiscal Year 1998 for misconduct by FBI employees.

The report was issued to educate FBI employees on the Bureau's standards of conduct. It reflects the policy of Director Louis J. Freeh that the FBI's 28,000 employees be 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 39 support personnel conducts about one-fourth of the investigations of employees for serious misconduct. The remainder are carried out by Special Agents in other parts of the FBI under OPR instructions. During Fiscal Year 1998 301 employees were disciplined, or 1.1% of the FBI's total workforce. 32 were dismissed and 269 received lesser punishment.

Employees were alerted to two new cautions:

• "FBI employees should be aware of the considerable perils associated with inadequate supervision of inmate-witnesses who are in the custody of the FBI... Aside from the obvious security concerns, there may also be a litigation obligation to disclose any favorable treatment received by the prisoner".
  
• "Mandatory reporting and/or arrest policies by police and social agencies are bringing increasing numbers of alleged domestic violence situations to OPR's attention ... A criminal assault in the home is conduct far beneath the standards the FBI expects of its employees and is treated as serious misconduct...even if a local criminal conviction does not result".

The report also noted that the FBI's former Office of Law Enforcement Ethics has been incorporated into the OPR to directly relate the disciplinary process to the FBI's ethics training program.

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