	Background

Under authority of the Inspector General Act of 1978, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and the military criminal investigative organization within each of the services investigate alleged procurement fraud. More specifically, these policies prohibit agents from making promises or threats to gain cooperation; using deceit, which courts could view as overcoming an interviewee’s free will; or indiscriminately displaying weapons. NCIS, DCIS, and FBI policies do not specifically prohibit carrying firearms during interviews. Controls Are in Place to Deter Inappropriate NCIS Agent Behavior

NCIS requires an investigation of allegations of agent misconduct. DOD and NCIS have also established controls to protect individual rights and act as deterrents to inappropriate agent conduct during interviews. Judicial Review

U.S. According to the Navy’s General Counsel, once a case is accepted for prosecution in federal court, the Assistant U.S. Attorney assumes responsibility for the investigation and determines the need for further investigation, the witnesses who will be interviewed, and the timetable for referring the case to the grand jury for indictment. Neither DOD nor the Department of Justice favor routinely audio- or videotaping interviews. Both agencies believe that such a practice would not improve the quality of investigations or court proceedings and that the resources necessary to institute such a practice could be better used elsewhere. Officials told us that an NCIS pilot test of videotaping all interviews in the early 1970s did not support routine use because (1) the agents found that they were devoting disproportionate time and energy to the care of equipment rather than gathering facts; (2) the number and breadth of interviews declined, as did the overall quality of investigations; and (3) investigators’ productivity decreased due to their inability to conduct a sufficient number of in-depth interviews. We focused on the policies and procedures concerning agent conduct and demeanor, the carrying and display of weapons during interviews, and use of audio- and videotaping. To document actual NCIS interview practices, we interviewed fraud case supervisors and agents at the two NCIS field offices responsible for the highest number of closed procurement fraud investigations in fiscal  years 1995 and 1996—Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
To determine whether NCIS policies are in line with generally accepted federal law enforcement standards, we compared NCIS interview policies, especially with regard to agent conduct and demeanor and the carrying and display of weapons, with those of DCIS and FBI—two of the larger federal law enforcement agencies involved in procurement fraud investigations. We also reviewed the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center’s and NCIS internal training curriculum on interviews. Regarding oversight of NCIS, we interviewed DOD Inspector General officials responsible for the oversight of NCIS investigative activities and examined cases of alleged NCIS agent misconduct that received oversight by the DOD Inspector General. Attorneys, the use of audio and video equipment to tape interviews and the desirability and feasibility of providing the transcripts to witnesses and subjects.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Naval Criminal and Investigative Service's (NCIS) policies and practices regarding agent interviews of suspects and witnesses during procurement fraud investigations, focusing on: (1) NCIS's policies on interviewing, including agent conduct and demeanor and the carrying and display of weapons; (2) controls to deter inappropriate conduct by agents; and (3) the desirability and feasibility of audio- or videotaping interviews and making the recording or transcription available to the person interviewed.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) according to federal law enforcement experts, NCIS interview policies are in accordance with generally accepted federal law enforcement standards and applicable laws; (2) specifically, NCIS interview policies prohibit the indiscriminate display of weapons or the use of threats, promises, inducements, or physical or mental abuse by agents attempting to influence an individual during interviews; (3) NCIS has established controls to deter, detect, and deal with agent misconduct; (4) NCIS agents are trained in interview policies at their initial training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and through in-house and contractor training; (5) other controls include periodic inspections of NCIS field offices, internal investigations of alleged agent misconduct, oversight of cases and allegations of agent misconduct by the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General, and the involvement of the U.S. Attorney's offices in grand jury investigations and prosecutions; (6) furthermore, judicial review of evidence presented also acts as a deterrent to inappropriate agent conduct since inappropriate or illegal behavior may result in the evidence obtained not being admissible in court; (7) the DOD Inspector General and NCIS could identify only six cases since January 1989 in which misconduct was substantiated, and none of those cases involved procurement fraud investigations; (8) NCIS policies do not prohibit audio- or videotaping of interviews or distributing the written or taped results to the interviewee; (9) the NCIS does not routinely tape interviews; (10) officials from NCIS, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and selected Assistant U.S. Attorneys did not support the idea of routinely taping interviews; (11) NCIS considers routine taping of interviews to be unjustified, given the equipment and transcription costs and the large volume of interviews associated with procurement fraud investigations; (12) DOD and Department of Justice officials noted that routine audio- or videotaping would not improve the quality of the investigation or court proceedings; and (13) the DOD advisory board agreed that the routine taping of interviews was unnecessary, given the lack of evidence supporting a widespread abuse of subjects' rights by agents from military criminal investigative organizations.