Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration in Investigating and Prosecuting Urban Crime, 1982–1999: Drugs, Weapons, and Gangs
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The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration in Investigating and Prosecuting Urban Crime, 1982–1999: Drugs, Weapons, and Gangs Author(s): Malcolm Russell-Einhorn ; Shawn Ward ; Amy Seeherman Document No.: 201782 Date Received: January 2004 Award Number: OJP-99-C-008 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration in Investigating and Prosecuting Urban Crime, 1982–1999: Drugs, Weapons, and Gangs Cambridge, MA Lexington, MA Final Report Hadley, MA Bethesda, MD Washington, DC Chicago, IL NCJ 201782 Cairo, Egypt Johannesburg, South Africa May 2000 Prepared for Cheryl Crawford National Institute of Justice 810 Seventh Street, NW Washington, DC 20531 Prepared by Malcolm Russell-Einhorn Shawn Ward Abt Associates Inc. Amy Seeherman 1110 Vermont Avenue, NW Abt Associates Inc. Suite 610 1110 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005-3522 Suite 610 Washington, DC 20005 Table of Contents Acknowledgements Executive Summary......................................................................................................................................i I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 A. Two Decades of Change in Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration ............................1 B. Background, Scope, Limitations, and Organization of the Study..............................................6 II. Background and Antecedents: The Historically Limited Role of the Federal Government in Local Crime Control................................................................................................................11 A. Paving the Way for Expanded Federal Urban Crime Control Efforts: The 200-Year Growth of Federal Criminal Jurisdiction .................................................................................11 B. The Advantages of Federal Prosecution Also Created Incentives for a Larger Federal Role in Urban Crime Control...................................................................................................14 C. Organizational Steps Toward Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration Prior to 1980 ............................................................................................................................15 D. Incentives and Disincentives to Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration....................18 III. The Sustained Growth of Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration in Investigating and Prosecuting Urban Crime, 1982–1999 .........................................................20 A. The Attorney General’s Task Force on Violent Crime............................................................20 B. 1982–1985: A New Foundation for Federal-Local Law Enforcement Is Laid........................22 C. The Rise of the War on Drugs Creates Further Incentives for Operational Cooperation, 1986–1987..........................................................................................................28 D. Fear of Drugs and Violent Crime Leads to More Support for Federal-Local Law Enforcement Cooperation, 1988–1989 ....................................................................................35 E. Violent Crime Spawns Highly Directed Cooperation and Prosecution by Federal Authorities, 1990–1992............................................................................................................39 F. Efforts to Institutionalize the Partnership Concept, 1993–1999 ..............................................46 G. Why Collaboration Took Root.................................................................................................52 Abt Associates Inc. Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration IV. Putting the Organizational and Prosecutorial Dimensions of Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration in Perspective........................................................................55 A. The Growth of Federal-Local Law Task Forces and Other Urban Crime Fighting Collaborations..........................................................................................................................55 B. The Growth of Federal Prosecutions to Combat Urban Crime................................................60 V. Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration in Investigating and Prosecuting Urban Crime: Task Forces and Other Collaborations in Three Cities...............................................69 A. The Evolution of Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration in Investigating and Prosecuting Urban Crime in Three Cities .........................................................................70 B. Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaborations in the Three Cities ......................................80 VI. Insights into the Effective Operation and Impact of Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration Against Urban Crime ........................................................................................108 A. Insights into Structuring and Operating Urban Crime Task Forces and Other Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaborations...................................................................108 B. Insights into the Management of Concurrent Jurisdiction Decisions ....................................113 C. Insights into the Effective Facilitation of Local Law Enforcement Coordination Against Urban Crime .............................................................................................................117 D. Insights into the Effect of Urban Crime Collaboration on Law Enforcement Organization and Operations .................................................................................................119 E. Insights into the Community Impact of Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration Against Urban Crime .............................................................................................................121 VII. The Future of Federal-Local Collaboration Against Urban Crime.......................................123 A. Federal-Local Collaboration Will Intensify in the Future......................................................123 B. Toward More Seamless and Coordinated Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration Against Urban Crime ......................................................................................127 End Notes .................................................................................................................................................132 Appendices A. List of Persons Interviewed or Consulted B. FBI Safe Streets Violent Crime Initiative Standard Memorandum of Understanding Abt Associates Inc. Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration C. Materials Relating to the U.S. Attorney’s Violent Crimes Task Force Cease Fire Program, Western District of Tennessee D. DEA State and Local Task Force Program Standard Memorandum of Understanding E. Consensus on Critical Elements for Success for Multijurisdictional Task Forces F. Glossary of Acronyms Abt Associates Inc. Federal-Local Law Enforcement Collaboration Acknowledgments I am very grateful to my colleagues Shawn Ward and Amy Seeherman, both of whom assisted me in making site visits to San Diego, Detroit, and Memphis and conducting many of the interviews of various Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials. I also want to thank three other colleagues at Abt Associates— Terence Dunworth, Douglas McDonald, and David Hayeslip—for their insights into law enforcement and criminal justice system developments over the past several decades and for suggestions for improving this report. I also owe thanks to several people who served as informal advisers to the study. These individuals—John Scalia of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Julie Samuels, then of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, and Brian Ostrom of the National Center for State Courts—shared considerable background information with me and helped interpret statistical data bearing on various topics within the study. I owe additional thanks to the Federal agency representatives in Washington, D.C. who were kind enough to spend time with me answering questions about the many Federal policies and programs initiated over the past two decades that had an important influence on the growth of Federal-local law enforcement collaboration. These individuals included Louis De Falaise, Executive Office for United States Attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice; Katherine Armentrout, Executive Office for OCDETF, Criminal Division, DOJ; Alice Dery, Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, Criminal Division, DOJ; Grace Mastalli, Office of Policy Development, DOJ; Jeff Sweetin, Mobile Enforcement Team Program, DEA; James Robinson, Criminal Division, DOJ; Gray Hildreth, State and Local Programs Section, DEA; Ken Neu, Violent Crime and Major Offenders Section, FBI; Malcolm Brady, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; and Kurt Schmid, HIDTA Program, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Finally, I am grateful to the many Federal, state, and local law enforcement