Federal Law Enforcement: Information on Certain Agencies' Criminal Investigative Personnel and Salary Costs

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed: (1) the composition and salary costs of certain federal law enforcement personnel; and (2) duplication of effort among federal agencies with criminal investigative authority. GAO noted that: (1) as of March 31, 1995, 33 federal agencies had 65,194 civilian employees covered by law enforcement retirement or special pay; (2) annual salary costs for these federal investigative personnel totalled about $2.2 annually; (3) the Department of Justice employed about 56 percent of these investigative personnel at an annual cost of about $1.2 billion, the Department of the Treasury employed about 28 percent at about $649 million, and the Department of the Interior employed about 10 percent at about $88 million; (4) the remaining 29 agencies employed about 10 percent of these employees at about $217 million annually; (5) criminal investigating personnel accounted for over 76 percent of these employees, Border Patrol agents accounted for almost 11 percent, and police accounted for almost 5 percent; (6) over 8 percent of investigative personnel were employed in the remaining occupational series; (7) jurisdictional overlap and duplication of effort exist among drug enforcement and intelligence activities, export control activities, and federal fugitive apprehension; and (8) although the National Performance Review has recommended the consolidation of drug enforcement and intelligence activities and law enforcement training facilities, much duplication persists.