By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
The government shutdown is hindering the FBI’s investigations of terrorism, child trafficking and violent crimes, according to a report issued Tuesday by a group representing the bureau’s 13,000 special agents.
The 72-page report, Voices from the Field, describes how agents are being hampered by a shutdown that has no end in sight.
The spending freeze has left the bureau with no money for confidential informants, witnesses at criminal trials, translators, paralegals and other support staff. Agents also are working without pay.
“The shutdown has eliminated any ability to operate,” an unnamed agent who works on counterintelligence investigations said in the report. “The fear is our enemies know they can run freely.”
Another unnamed agent said the bureau has been unable to help crack down on violent gangs.
“I currently investigate a particularly violent street gang,” an agent from the FBI’s central region said in the report. “I have had to tell our local law enforcement partners that I cannot assist in funding these operations because my field office does not have money. This means that the one chance we may have to take down several violent individuals may pass us by and we may not get the chance again.”
Without money for confidential informants, agents are at risk of “losing them and the information they provide forever,” an agent said in the report.
“It’s not a switch that we can turn on and off.”
