Remarks by Carl J. Truscott
Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
LexisNexis Symposium
Tysons Corner, Virginia
June 8, 2005

Note: This is the text as prepared for delivery. The Director sometimes deviates from prepared remarks.

Good afternoon, everyone. Tom, I appreciate that introduction, and the opportunity to speak to all of you today. I know I’m greeting you fairly late in a day that I am sure has been full of many interesting discussions on crucial issues. LexisNexis has long been a distinguished leader in the responsible use of personal information. Your topic today is “information sharing”—and you’ve been doing just that, in abundance!

I know that the group today includes representatives of both the public and private sectors, with many different areas of expertise. But you’re at this symposium today because you share the belief that information is important—you’re interested in the best ways to use it, share it, and secure it. In my remarks today, I’d like to talk to you about ATF’s work on sharing information and expertise, both within law enforcement and with the private sector. I’ll also share some examples of the critical importance of open source information to our work in law enforcement. And I’ll describe some of the issues we face in integrating and controlling information.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has about 5,100 employees. Some of us are criminal investigators, who investigate crimes such as firearms trafficking, arson, the illegal activity of gang members, the criminal misuse of explosives, and the diversion of alcohol and tobacco from legal commerce to illegal sale. Others are industry operations investigators, who undertake the Bureau’s regulatory duties and ensure that commerce in firearms and explosives is conducted legally. Others serve in a variety of careers, including forensic experts, auditors, and administrators. Whatever our job duties, we share the same missions: to prevent terrorism, reduce violent crime, and protect the public.

We achieve these missions by exercising our responsibilities relating to firearms, explosives and arson, and alcohol and tobacco. These responsibilities were given to us by Congress, through legislation such as the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the Safe Explosives Act of 2002. By investigating firearms trafficking and violent firearms crime, we’re helping to make safer neighborhoods for law-abiding citizens. Across the country, we collaborate with State and local law enforcement in the battle against violent crime. ATF special agents lead Violent Crime Impact Teams in 20 cities, focusing on identifying and prosecuting the “worst of the worst” that threaten the peace of those communities. And these efforts are paying off: violent crime has fallen to a thirty-year low, and in just the last few days, the FBI announced that the homicide rate dropped 3.6% last year, a decrease for the first time since 1999.

Through our explosives enforcement and regulatory efforts, we’re working to keep explosives out of the hands of criminals and terrorists. Through training for U.S. and Iraqi forces and research on improvised explosive devices, ATF is contributing to the American mission in Iraq. ATF’s pursuit of criminal charges against traffickers in illegal tobacco products keeps millions of dollars in illicit gains from terrorists and organized criminal groups. And our investigative and research efforts help solve arsons.

As you can see, we work in a variety of areas, on diverse subject matter. There are all kinds of objects involved in our cases: firearms, bombs, arson accelerants, and occasionally even an illegal still. But in every investigation, the most important element is not an object: it’s information. To make an individual case, or to see connections between cases and identify trends in time to act on them, we have the obligation to make the best use of what we know. Fortunately, we also have the capability to do this.

ATF and the rest of the Federal Government must excel in information sharing and information security. This imperative comes from the very highest levels. As the President stated in a Memorandum to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies just last week, and I quote,

“Ensuring appropriate sharing and integration of and access to information, while protecting information privacy rights and other legal rights of Americans, remains a high priority for the United States and a necessity for winning the war on terror.”

It’s clear that working together and sharing what we know isn’t just a good idea: it’s a matter of national security.

Each of you knows that over the last few years, there has been a national effort to ensure that government officials with overlapping responsibilities are actually working together and sharing information. ATF has participated in this effort by creating an Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information, or OSII. This directorate is led by Assistant Director Jim McDermond and Deputy Assistant Director Virginia O’Brien. OSII’s mission is to provide timely, accurate, and focused intelligence through the collection and analysis of information, enhancing decision-making for government officials inside and outside our Bureau. We exchange information effectively using technology and people: ATF is represented within various components of the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and within the Intelligence Community.

OSII works to ensure that our special agents and industry operations investigators receive the information they need, to disrupt criminal organizations and individuals that threaten public safety. The dynamic exchange of intelligence information between Headquarters and field offices allows ATF to leverage data collection and analytical expertise to aid in providing accurate and timely intelligence support. The creation of OSII was a big step toward enabling ATF to put its information to the best possible use. Ultimately, these efforts will ensure that investigators get the best possible information—to help prevent future incidents.

Our Office of Science and Technology, or OST, is led by Dr. Gregg Bailey, our Assistant Director and CIO, and DAD Linda Cureton. Their responsibilities include oversight of a wide variety of activities—from forensic laboratories, to computer networking, to financial investigations. Our forensic experts testify in ATF cases, and share their expertise with Federal, State and local counterparts. Our forensic auditors use their understanding of financial information to provide new investigative leads. One element common to many of OST’s duties is knowledge: enhancing it through research, using it for investigations, and managing it within technology and information systems.

ATF’s position as a component of the Department of Justice helps us share information within law enforcement. A provision of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 placed ATF within the Department of Justice, and we are proud to contribute our efforts toward reaching the Department’s strategic goals. We are participating in Joint Terrorism Task Force operations, and working to improve information sharing between agencies. Our expertise in firearms, explosives, and alcohol and tobacco diversion supports America’s efforts to counter the grave threat of terrorism.

We make significant contributions to the law enforcement community, and our presence within the Department helps use the benefits we provide more effectively. The Department of Justice understands ATF’s unique expertise and capabilities: and I am gratified that this attitude begins at the top. In my meetings with Attorney General Gonzales, I have found him to be supportive of ATF, and I appreciate his backing of our important work on behalf of the American people.

ATF is a full participant in the Department of Justice’s Law Enforcement Information Sharing, or LEIS, program. LEIS is intended to facilitate law enforcement collaboration across agency, jurisdictional and geographic boundaries, through information-sharing and common technical services. This plan enables the Department to better utilize the information collected by ATF and other components by making that information known and available for use by duly recognized and sworn law enforcement officers.

Through the course of its operations, ATF collects data that is invaluable to law enforcement. We’re working to make our information available to our law enforcement partners—both across the United States and internationally. This data is invaluable for perfecting our own cases, of course—but it’s also an essential contribution to law enforcement as a whole. I’d like to give you just a couple of examples of how we’re leveraging our information and expertise.

ATF’s National Tracing Center, or NTC, conducts traces of firearms recovered at crime scenes for any Federal, State, local, or international law enforcement agency. The NTC, the largest operation of its kind in the world, traced over 250,000 firearms in fiscal year 2004. The NTC also stores information concerning some types of firearms sales transactions. Congress has passed several laws governing what types of data ATF may collect and how we may disseminate it, and of course, we closely adhere to these legal requirements.

We don’t just collect this data, though: we learn from it. ATF’s analysis of crime gun data provides ATF personnel and other law enforcement agencies with crime gun data specific to their geographic areas, and helps them identify emerging trends and patterns in firearms-related criminal activity. We use the intelligence gathered from crime gun and trace data to strengthen our field investigations, and make them more effective.

We’re also deploying secure web-based systems to share information on explosives and arson investigations. Our state-of-the-art system for documenting arson and explosives incidents, known as the Bomb and Arson Tracking System or BATS, has been mandated as the Department of Justice standard. We have worked with FBI to consolidate their data into this single system, which is managed by ATF. Through BATS, 610 U.S. law enforcement agencies can collect and share fire, arson and explosives incident information in real time. Records management functions are also available within this secure law enforcement environment, along with advanced technology such as Geographical Information System tracking. The system currently contains entries on more than 31,000 incidents. In 2004, the BATS system received a FOSE Award, and we were glad that our system earned this acclaim from the private sector.

An investigation often begins with evidence from a crime scene, but rarely will it end there; we often need open source data to complete the case. Many ATF employees, including criminal investigators, auditors and analysts, use this type of information daily. More information about the subject of an investigation may help answer questions—or may raise additional ones. More knowledge about an individual’s residence and associates, his assets and property, his business dealings, can help integrate fragmented facts and can help answer the question of motive. And it can help send an investigation in an unexpected direction by providing a promising new lead.

ATF uses open source data in all aspects of our criminal investigations, to supplement the data received from our law enforcement and intelligence databases and sources. Without these sources, the identification of leads and the progression of cases would be much slower. Without these sources, it would be much more difficult for our investigators to bring all appropriate criminal charges, and for our forensic auditors to identify all illicit assets that must be seized, forfeited and then liquidated. I’d like to give you a few examples of the power of using open source data and law enforcement information together:

The first involves Arson for Profit: ATF investigated a fire at the residence of a decorated military veteran. The veteran, who was a quadriplegic, had been suffocated prior to the fire. Asset and business records helped uncover a financial motive for the crime. The victim’s wife was convicted of murder, arson, and forgery, and was sentenced to a total of 80 years in prison.

The second involves Alcohol and Tobacco, diverted from lawful commerce into criminal activity: ATF criminal investigators and auditors investigated a cigarette wholesaler operating on an Indian reservation in upstate New York. Cigarette shipments invoiced to a smoke shop on the reservation were actually being diverted to individuals in other states. Approximately $20 million in illegal sales were diverted, avoiding payment of State excise taxes. Through searches of public information, auditors helped verify the illegal activity, and identified assets resulting from it.

The final example involves ATF’s work against organized criminal enterprises. In pursuing charges of public corruption against a municipal judge, investigators used public property records to identify property and assets of the suspect. This resulted in charges of money laundering and forfeiture of the property. The former judge was sentenced to over 17 years in prison, and ordered to pay fines, forfeiture and restitution totaling more than $600,000.

You’ve heard a few examples of how data collected and managed by the private sector is an essential part of law enforcement operations. You know that private sector data is critical to the business operations of your private sector customers. But you may not have thought about how the success of your government customers benefits society as a whole. In one of these cases, information from organizations like yours helped put an arsonist and murderer behind bars. ATF is making good use of these valuable resources from the private sector—we’re using them to fight violent crime, and safeguard our Nation. When your data assists our investigations, everybody benefits.

Soon, we at ATF will have even more access to data. Thanks to a new service provided under the Department of Justice contract with LexisNexis, DOJ and its components will soon have the ability to purchase additional vital open-source data. Through the contract terms, ATF and other components can purchase and use Accurint, a locate-and-research tool available to government, law enforcement and commercial customers. [I know many of you will be familiar with Accurint.] Its proprietary data-linking technology returns search results in seconds to the user's desktop. Accurint, using public records and non-public information, provides invaluable fraud detection and identity solutions for the public and private sectors. Purchase of this data under the contract represents increased access to critical information.

I believe that information managers in the public and private sectors face many of the same challenges. We handle knowledge of many different types, and to make the most of that knowledge, we need to link disparate types of data together for effective retrieval. And networks must be open and flexible enough to allow effective information sharing—but they must also be secure enough to safeguard the information within them.

The challenge in today's content- and media-rich computer environment is to be able to index and retrieve data in a way that makes contextual sense to the user. Any viable system must be able to handle all types of media, quickly. It must also be flexible enough to allow output configurations that will meet the variety of end uses demanded by the diverse end user group. At our Fire Research Laboratory, we’re meeting this need with a system called FireTOSS. The system, used to document fire tests, integrates digital still images, digital video and collects input from up to 2000 instrumental data points. The system provides a report of test that is automatically customized to produce the appropriate data tables, graphs, and images. This report of test is available on the day of testing. The system also ensures data integrity, by archiving the raw data. Images, video, and reports are available in a fully searchable format. This system preserves the maximum data from tests conducted at the Fire Research Laboratory. This evidence is essential to investigations such as the arson-for-profit case I mentioned earlier, in which the disabled military veteran was murdered and his home set ablaze. In this case, ATF investigators built five full-scale reconstructions of the scene, and compared fire patterns from the test burns to those at the scene. The results of those tests helped establish the manner in which the fire had occurred—and disproved the alibi of the victim’s wife, who proved to be his murderer.

Each of you knows all too well that keeping control of data is of paramount importance. This is true whether the information resides in a network or on a CD, whether the potential theft is by electronic or physical means. And the consequences of compromise are enormous. It’s said that to know the seriousness of a crime, you need to ask a victim: and when it comes to identity theft, unfortunately, we at ATF have been the victim. Recently, information on government credit card holders was misplaced by the issuing institution, creating the possibility of compromise of the personal data of many ATF employees. This incident hindered the daily conduct of our business. It risked the identities and the credit ratings of individual employees. And in an agency such as ATF, where the work of undercover special agents makes America a safer place to live, information control is critical to operational security. ATF strictly maintains controls on access to the information contained in our systems. We know this vigilance is necessary, because we’ve seen—very clearly—the potential consequences of negligence.

As I mentioned, a number of legal constraints control ATF’s release of information to the public. These laws cover all release of information, whether in conversation or in writing. Though they acknowledge the need to open up government processes, many laws seek to protect the personal privacy of individuals or the trade secrets of businesses. In releasing information to the public, ATF must operate within laws including the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act, and, of course, must not disclose matters occurring before a federal grand jury. And in dealing with financial institutions such as banks and credit unions, we must follow the provisions of the Right to Financial Privacy Act. We’re obligated to seek warrants or make formal written requests before we can gain access to financial information about individuals.

In law enforcement, there is still no substitute for good police work: but in the information age, good police work takes on a new meaning. New technology and new tools make it possible to gain information that previous generations of law enforcement officers could never have anticipated. With these new opportunities, come new security needs, to counter new threats.

Today you’ve heard how we at ATF are working to make the most of what we know, and how we’re striving to meet the challenges of the information age. And I hope you’ve also gained a sense of the importance of your work, to ours. By sharing and protecting your information, you create and maintain a valuable national security resource. The information that you manage, share and safeguard is helping to protect America.

Thank you.

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