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E. PROPOSED PLAN

1. PRESENT STATUS

To administer requests effectively, avoid serious error in coping with a task involving substantial legal complexity, and prevent impairment of the FBI's primary mandated responsibilities, certain essential policies were previously implemented. Each is considered vital not only to effective administration of the FOIPA, but also to the ability of the FBI to maintain a continuing capacity to meet its statutory obligations regarding Federal law enforcement and protection of the nation's internal security. For basic policies are involved:

(1) Use of law trained supervisors for all administrative positions within the FOIPA Section.

(2) Use of a two-track system separating the processing of voluminous cases from those involving considerably fewer pages.

(3) Use of a "see reference" policy approved by the Deputy Attorney General to expedite our response to requests, while preserving for the requester further opportunity to adequately identify any record not retrieved by the initial search. (4) Use of Headquarter's personnel and the central records system to respond to most requests, although duplicate investigative files may exist in the Field Offices. Conversely investigations unreported to Headquarters are required to be processed by Field Office personnel, who are authorized to correspond directly with the requester.

The requirement of law-trained supervisors for the FOIPA Headquarters' operation is grounded in the legal complexities of the statutes, the necessity to provide proper instruction to the Field Offices to assure lawful compliance, and the aspects of advocacy and defense associated with appeals and litigation. With the passage of time, further judicial guidance in the interpretation of the statutes, and the development of a training and policy manual providing firm guidelines to new personnel, fewer attorney supervisors may be required. For the foreseeable future, their continued assignment is indispensable.

Adoption and continued use of the two-track system, recognized by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia as reasonable, permits effective control and proper assessment of personnel in responding to primarily non-voluminous or first person requests versus voluminous requests or those with historic or policy significance. (Open America, et al. v. The Watergate Special Prosecution Force, et al., Case Number 76–1371, decided July 7, 1976). A balance of these interests is deemed appropriate in keeping faith with the public and the objectives of the Congress in promulgating the legislation. To reject this approach or emphasize one at the expense of the other would disrupt the FBI's efforts to act responsibly and to answer the public's needs equitably.

The "see" reference policy which concerns the search, retrieval and file review system used by the FBI to respond to FOIPA requests has been explained previously to individual Members of Congress and the House Committee on Government Operations. Documents regarding its development, evaluation and the approval for its use by the Deputy Attorney General are contained in the appendix. (See appendix page 120). Despite the fact that the FBI's backlog has grown subsequent to the adoption of this policy, it has allowed concentration of existing personnel on their actual processing of material responsive to requests rather than using their services to review thousands of volumes, only to determine the material is either not identical with the requester or not responsive to the request. Continued application of this measure should add significantly to the FBI's endeavor to achieve and retain a current operational capacity. Furthermore the policy has considerable merit from a requester's viewpoint as it allows him to provide the detail that will permit the retrieval and identification of a record, which the FBI would otherwise have been unable to link with the requester or the subject matter of his inquiry.

Use of the Central Records System at Headquarters to comply with the requests of most persons is the policy embodied in Title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 16.57 (c). Conversely where investigations have not been reported to Headquarters, the requester is assured, by designation of the Field Office involved, of a complete search for any record of such an investigation. The importance may be overlooked in the rather simple statement set forth in the regulation; however, it was designed to preclude Field Offices from having to review and process voluminous case requests or a large number of less voluminous requests. Either or both situations would impact adversely upon the primary function of per

sonnel in the Field Offices, investigation. As few Field Office personnel would be available to process requests, the burdens could become onerous overnight. Additionally there would be no way to balance a work load, governed solely by the choice of offices to whom requesters could, if the policy were abandoned, address their letters. Administrative complexities that would stem from having most of the work handled by 59 separate Field Offices are staggering to even contemplate. Common sense dictates no reversal or abandonment of this policy; and certainly to do otherwise would not further the objectives set forth at the beginning of this proposal.

An evaluation of current procedures provides the background against which proposed policy may be most critically examined. What follows is a bifurcated plan to meet the objectives established. Unquestionably problems will ensue and have to be resolved.

This proposal is intended to be a first step, and deals with very specific objectives. It is definitely not the final solution to the impact of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts upon the FBI. A proposal presented in any other per spective would be presumptuous; and is likely to be stillborn, despite the care taken in its conception. Necessary funding, and the further cooperation of Congress in the consideration of specific problems, will be necessary.

2. RESTRUCTURE OF FOIPA SECTION INTO FOIPA BRANCH

Attached immediately hereto is a chart showing the physical reorganization of the FOIPA Branch.

INTRODUCTION

The FOIPA Branch must have the capability to receive, process and make disclosure of a continuing daily work load of approximately 18,000 pages. The proposed reorganized structure is designed to achieve this capability. The Branch has been divided into two Sections, Disclosure and Operations.

This phase of the proposal deals exclusively with the Branch day-to-day operations and has been designed to achieve long range effectiveness, and the goal of maintaining a current status. However, it cannot be emphasized too strongly that without elimination of the backlog this plan cannot achieve an acceptable degree of success.

Disclosure and the essential support structure to allow the necessary level of productivity required, represent the basic features of this portion of the proposal.

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A. DISCLOSURE SECTION

The Disclosure Section, headed by a Section Chief and a Number One Man, has been divided into six Units, three to handle Non-Project requests and three to handle Project requests, plus a floating Crisis Team. All Research Analysts are within this Section and have the responsibility of processing all documents. Two hundred Research Analysts have been chosen as the number needed to stay current with the new requests, with a Supervisor to Research Analyst ratio of 1 to 11 as the upper efficient level for this type work.

Past experience has proven that the greatest disruption to processing has been the shifting of Research Analysts from their own assignments to processing somewhere else on a crisis basis. Only one request has required the assignment of over 21 Research Analysts, and with the PRC Team, (Project Crisis Team), available to be assigned in whole or in part to a critical processing need, the effect of shifting personnel will be minimized.

The Disclosure Section will increase to 254 persons as indicated on the chart. Since the FOIPA Section as currently constituted is totally disclosure oriented, this represents an increase of personnel devoted to the disclosure function of 34. A clear delineation of function is essential. Even with 254 people devoted to the Disclosure Section, it will not succeed unless the Operations Section is simultaneously implemented. The Disclosure Section must be freed from all things save the processing and release of documents.

B. OPERATIONS SECTION

The Operations Section, headed by a Section Chief and a Number One Man, has been divided into four Units.

A. The Branch Analytical, Research, Support and Acquisition Unit will be responsible for the continued monitoring of the Branch operation in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of function. It will perform all research dealing with legal developments as pertain to the Branch and will be responsible for a contemporaneous testing and acquisition program designed to fill vacancies within the Branch with an absolute minimum of delay. This Unit will supervise and assist in training all new personnel.

B. The Field Office Operational, Records, Appeal Coordinator Unit will have as its prime function the implementation, and monitoring for compliance, of FOIPA Branch, Department of Justice and Court mandated policy effecting the FBI's fieldwide compliance with the Acts. It will coordinate all administrative appeal activities, whether Headquarters or Field Office, and in conjunction with the ARSA Unit will promulgate research and analytical conclusions.

C. The Classification Review Unit will be responsible for review, under the guidelines of Executive Order 11652, of all documents pertaining to FOIPA requests, and the subsequent notifications and updating to which their reviews lead.

D. The Centralized Initial Processing Unit will be responsible for all initial aspects of handling FOIPA requests and preparing them as complete work packages prior to assigning them to Research Analysts for processing. Also included is computerized data capture and control of request assignment on a specialized basis. During the time span of the Backlog Elimination Plan, the CIP Unit will have the additional responsibility of preparing all backlogged requests for processing by the Agents on "Special".

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To reorganize the FOIPA Branch will cost $6,702,443 during the first year, and will be reduced for each succeeding year upon removal of the one time costs of $255,182 to a subsequent yearly cost of $6,447,261.

D. OPERATIONAL POLICY

The FOIPA Branch will be guided by one over-riding policy, the quickest possible response to all requesters. The proposed reorganization plan has builtin features of self-monitoring, training refinement, personnel replacement and computerized data retrieval.

Front-end assembly line techniques will be instituted, and the total Research Analyst complement will be freed to concentrate on nothing but processing documents.

The Operations Section will serve to optimize the effectiveness of the FBI's response to the mandates of the Acts.

3. ELIMINATION OF THE FOIPA BACKLOG

A. INTRODUCTION

The FBI proposes a separate approach, dependent upon the reorganized FOIPA Branch as a support facility, to meet the objective of eliminating the FOIPA backlog within one year. This is to be accomplished by an extraordinary crash program utilizing a complement of 200 Special Agent Attorneys selected from the various FBI Field Offices. They would be lodged in the Washington, D.C., area on a per diem basis and work in the FBI Headquarters building, 10th and Pennsylvania Avenue. It is estimated that this complement working six days per week, ten hours per day, at an average page production per Agent per day, of 250, will have completely processed the 9.9 million pages in the projected backlog within six months from the date of inception, designated as January 17, 1977.

B. FUNCTIONAL FEATURES

This would place the complement of Agents, selected for the crash program to eliminate the backlog, contiguous to the reorganized FOIPA Branch that will support and supervise the program. Both the original files and pertinent communications, as well as the special services of the ARSAU and CRU would be immediately available to assist in the resolution of problems.

All agent personnel selected for the crash program will be attorneys. The purpose of this selection is to minimize the training required and to assure the most productive and correct application of the Acts. Presently, the total complement of law trained FBI Agents is 1,258. Adopting the principle of equitably distributing the selection among all Field Offices, with the slight added burden being placed on twelve offices having the largest attorney complement, no Field Office will be crippled by the personnel selection.

All materials needed by the special complement would be prepared by the Headquarters staff of the FOIPA Branch, particularly by the personnel assigned to the Centralized Initial Processing Unit. As the finished processed documents are produced, the necessary communications to furnish the released documents will be prepared and disclosure accomplished by the PRC Team. To expedite the release of all documents processed during the crash program, an extensive use of printed forms, explaining the exemptions cited, the appeals procedure and the right to judicial review is contemplated. Preparation of original transmittal communications can thus be kept to an absolute minimum. Anal. ysis of this procedure for incorporation in the FOIPA Branch operation will be possible.

C. COST-MONETARY

The cost of the crash program will depend on the grades of the Agents designated to participate, and the rotation schedule chosen. It is felt that six months of concentrated six-day weeks at ten hours per day is beyond reason. Consideration has been given to various combinations of grade 12 and 13 agents, in two, 3 months shifts, and in three, 2 month shifts. The costs involved vary from $4.911,764 to $5.321,364 depending on the combinations selected. The Agent salaries and benefits are included as they must be allocated as a cost of the Special, however, their salaries would be a cost factor incurred wherever the Agents are assigned. Without the basic Agent salaries and the fixed costs included, the additional costs incurred vary from $2,300,564 to $2,341,764. Calculation of the high figure was arrived at as follows:

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