Report: ATF, other agencies fail to follow disabilities law
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did not follow federal disabilities law during undercover storefront stings in Milwaukee and elsewhere, one of many problems cited in a sprawling and sharply critical report from the U.S. Department of Justice's Inspector General issued Thursday.
The inspector general investigation was launched following a series of reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that uncovered foul-ups and failures in a 2012 ATF storefront operation in Milwaukee and others nationwide, including agents using people with developmental disabilities to promote operations. Agents then arrested those individuals at the end of the sting, the Journal Sentinel found.
The inspector general report, the result of a 2 1/2-year probe, said its investigators found no evidence ATF agents in Milwaukee and other cities "targeted" people with disabilities or that agents knew those coming to the store had such disabilities.
However, the inspector general, an independent arm of the Justice Department, concluded from its review that none of the law enforcement agencies in the department, including ATF, was following a 1973 law prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities.
In response, the Justice Department has convened a working group to address the responsibilities agents have when encountering people with disabilities during such operations.
"We intend to monitor the DOJ's progress on this issue closely," Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a video statement on the report Thursday.
The inspector general report revealed fresh problems in the ATF storefront stings, such as the placement of the storefront in St. Louis near a Boys & Girls Club. The tactic was used in other ATF sting operations. Such placements allowed prosecutors to file additional charges when the operations were closed.
Also in St. Louis, a felon who worked at an ATF storefront later admitted to buying drugs, soliciting prostitutes, having sex with targets of the operation and telling his girlfriend that he was working as a confidential informant. After the St. Louis storefront closed, the felon was charged with sexually assaulting a child in another state. The ATF then terminated its relationship with him, the report said.
"Agents who worked with the informant told us that they saw no indication that the informant had a fondness for children," the report said.
The St. Louis storefront, dubbed "Operation Hustle City," was touted as a model operation by ATF leaders when they testified before Congress in the wake of the Journal Sentinel's reports.
Operations in use for years
The storefront operations, which were used by the agency for years, were intended to take illegal guns and drugs off the street. The agency, charged with enforcing the nation's gun laws, long touted the operations' successes, displaying seized guns and those charged in local news conferences.
The agency suspended using storefronts in June 2013, in the wake of the Journal Sentinel investigation. ATF spokeswoman Dannette Seward said Thursday there are no immediate plans for the agency to use storefronts but it may in the future.
The Journal Sentinel investigation revealed that as part of the "Fearless Distributing" operation in Milwaukee, ATF agents had three of their guns stolen, including a machine gun; allowed armed felons to leave the store; arrested four of the wrong people; and paid so much for guns that people bought them from stores and quickly sold the guns to agents for a profit.
The operation was burglarized of nearly $40,000 in merchandise and an ATF ballistic shield was stolen. Agents left behind sensitive documents, damaged the building and ran up utility bills, then refused to pay the landlord and warned him against pursuing the matter.
In Milwaukee, the agents used Chauncey Wright, a brain-damaged man with a low IQ, to promote the operation and then arrested him. He was convicted and received house arrest and probation.
The investigation found similar problems and new ones in ATF storefronts from Portland, Ore., to Pensacola, Fla.
The 112-page report examined operations in five cities, including Milwaukee; St. Louis; Pensacola, Fla.; Wichita, Kan.; and Brockton, Mass. It said that such stings have been employed by the other federal law enforcement agencies, but not as often as the ATF did them.
Such stings allow agents to control the undercover transactions and get video of them, which helps secure prosecutions and convictions. But the technique has several downsides. Among them:
- They can create an incentive for crime by offering prices for guns that lead people to steal them in order to sell them to agents.
- Difficulty in drawing significant criminals to such a store, often instead drawing in low-level suspects.
- The high cost of running such operations.
An FBI official called storefronts a "crude tool" to target criminals. An official with the Drug Enforcement Administration said it did not need storefronts to build its cases.
Official defends use of stings
Thomas Brandon, deputy director of the ATF, defended the agency's use of the stings, saying the agency seized 780 guns in the five operations and recommended 120 people for prosecution.
"Operations that directly benefit public safety, either predicated or broadly targeted should not be considered a 'crude tool' of law enforcement," Brandon wrote in an Aug. 22 letter included in the report.
The report said the storefront technique was potentially valuable but as in other ATF operations, there were shortcomings in how it was implemented.
"Overall, we determined that the events giving rise to the controversy surrounding ATF’s undercover storefront operations were avoidable and were caused primarily by poor management, insufficient training and guidance to agents in the field, and a lax organizational culture that failed to place sufficient emphasis on risk management in these inherently sensitive operations," it said.
The inspector general made 13 recommendations for reform, including better planning, oversight and review after the operations; using more experienced agents to run and work the operations; and amending plans to address the use of informants and the encounters of agents with people with disabilities.
On Thursday, the ATF released a statement saying the agency "takes full responsibility" for areas in need of improvement and welcomes the recommendations. It noted the ATF requires all agents and task force officers to take training on dealing with people with disabilities.
"ATF fully supports the Department’s development of Rehabilitation Act guidance, and has been an active participant in the working group that is developing that guidance," it said.
Congressional hearings
Congress held two hearings on problems with the storefronts and several committee members were highly critical of the agency for the storefront.
Testifying before Congress in April 2014, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he was "greatly troubled" by conduct in the storefront stings, specifically the agency's use and treatment of people with intellectual disabilities in undercover operations — and vowed there would be accountability.
"The notion that you would use mentally unstable people, you would tattoo them, that you would do ridiculous things like that, it's absurd and people will be held accountable," Holder said. "It's crazy."
Four months later, Congress learned that four ATF special agents responsible for the agency's botched undercover storefront sting in Milwaukee received the lightest punishment handed out by the agency. The report issued Thursday provided an update, noting that a supervisor received a letter of reprimand because of the Milwaukee operation and five others received "memoranda of caution."
The ATF also has been beset by other operational problems in recent years, including the disastrous "Operation Fast and Furious," where agents in Phoenix stood by as thousands of assault rifles passed into the hands of criminals and ended up at murder scenes, including one where a U.S. border guard was killed.
A report from a left-leaning group in May 2015 found the ATF has been so hobbled by the high-profile operational failures, internal dysfunction and external limits on its authority that the agency should be eliminated and merged into the FBI.
Citing the problems with storefronts and other issues, U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) proposed eliminating the ATF. In a statement Thursday, Sensenbrenner said the report "highlights the significant and dangerous shortcomings of the ATF."
"It is yet more evidence of the need to dismantle the troubled Bureau — a solution that would save millions of dollars in taxpayer money and eliminate embarrassing and reckless mistakes. By rolling the ATF’s critical functions into other law enforcement agencies, we can improve enforcement, save money, and end the parade of scandals we’ve seen over the years," he said.
In response to the report, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the Milwaukee ATF operation “was riddled with failures" and the operation was dangerous not just for agents but for the community.
"I am grateful for the work of the inspector general and will continue to hold the ATF accountable," Johnson said in a statement.