You forgot to mention the pinky rings, cool "English" cufflinks and other accessories that our Mgt adorns these days. Seriously, we need to start a thread with pictures showing the fashion trends of our agency's leaders.

"...Madea has been given information that poor Billy Hoover (you all remember this nice guy) and Chait have lost their cushy jobs in Baltimore and D.C."


Send them to the NFA Branch to assist with registrations, and/or the Tracing Center to conduct hand searches of the out of business dealer records. Both reside within commuting distance of Martinsburg, WV, which is about the same distance from their residences to their former SAC offices. With their excellent leadership and organizational skills, these guys should be tremendous assets to the workforce.

Patriot,
Good post. Thankfully, in my current Division, I don’t see a majority of Agents who sit on their duff’s. I see many hard workers, some slackers, and those who fall somewhere in the middle. I feel your pain if things in your office are as bad as you described.

I hope the Director and AD realize that a large part of the problems hurting our agency can be fixed by making major changes to our promotion policy:

This is the biggest problem we face. When a slacker of an agent scores 2 to 5 points better on the Assessment Center Test than the next applicant for a GS 14 position, guess who usually gets the job? Many of us question how is it that slacker agents scored well enough to get the GS job over a hard charging productive agent who actually cares about his/her colleagues? We have some GS 14’s that have never testified other than in Grand Jury, have never written an affidavit, never run a complex or multi-defendant case, etc….. These same slacker GS’ers grow up to cause problems and often become problem ASACs. The problem is, why do we put so much faith in a test score? Test scores should be reduced to pass or fail, with a requirement that agents must have 8 years on the job for being eligible to take the test. At a minimum, Agents should have to provide 2 or 3 references such as AUSA’s and Command Staff from another agency who can attest to leadership potential, knowledge of laws and the ability to work with people from other agencies. Poor agents usually make poor leaders. As they say, you can't make chicken salad from chicken shit. I think of folks such as Newell and other "stars" who were promoted way too fast in their careers. The results speak for themselves.

I beg that the Director and AD take immediate corrective action on this area. Of course there are other areas needing improvements, but this is a good place to start.

While I am unfamiliar with the specifics of the stories discussed by Madea, the poor performance of some ATF I.A. Agents should not surprise anyone. For years, many in the Agency have questioned the skills of our I.A. Agents, and complained that their investigations were flawed and often retaliatory in nature. Why does ATF Mgt. still believe that in order to be in I.A., one must have served as a GS14 Group Supervisor for several years. Many "real" police agencies staff I.A. units with top Senior Investigators who are not in management. These are the Investigators who have honed their skills to perfection. Many Police agencies also select I.A. Investigators that are recommended by Prosecutors based on their integrity and courtroom prowess. Again, our Agency does not follow the industry standard. Instead, we promote GS14's to I.A. who haven't worked an investigation in years and may not have been good investigators at all during their careers. Grade level should have no bearing on who is selected to an I.A. Agent position.

I'm not bashing I.A. as much as I am faulting the ATF promotion policy in general. When you have an agency that promotes managers based on social and demographic reasons instead of merit the outcome will generally be bad. How does a complete dud as an Agent suddenly score well on the Assessment Center and wind up as a Group Supervisor or a Program Manager? For years, Public Affairs, ESF13 and other hideouts were the dumping ground for these folks to get their GS14 status. This promotion policy is responsible for most of the calamities that our agency has experienced over the last 10 + years. The common denominator of which is poor and misguided leadership. Wake up call to management, you can't make chicken salad with chicken s%!t.

Shifting gears here. I'm not complaining, just asking questions.

I heard Mgmt. wants us to redirect our focus to working proactive violent crime cases, and to become an intelligence-driven investigative agency. Has anyone heard about how HQ plans to accomplish this? Some of what I heard involves: reducing the number of agents working adopted cases such as PSN, Exiles, and having TFO’s handle most of these; working more Title III cases; using NIBIN hits to generate leads on violent crime cases; implementing the intelligence-based firearms trafficking analysis initiative (iTrafficking) across the board; and increasing staffing of agents in Intel Groups. I’m sure there is much more to this.

Any thoughts on how the USAO will react to a reduced effort on Exile/PSN? Does anyone know the current status of the NIBIN program? Is it true that the NIBIN contractors were all victims of budget cuts and that we no longer have anyone handling the liaison with local/state PD’s to follow up on NIBIN hits? Are there any special initiatives or intel based programs at HQ that are addressing the recent spike in FFL burglaries across the country?

Will someone please explain in depth what happened to Crenshaw? So far, I have heard stories that he was investigated for allegedly misusing the Gov credit card and having an improper relationship with a subordinate. Then he somehow avoids being prosecuted or fired and gets reinstated as a SAC. Is there any truth to these allegations or is this just typical website drama? If this is true, I would pay big $ for Jones or Brandon to explain why they handled the matter this way. It is these types of managerial actions that tear apart the trust and esprit de corps of ATF. Pay attention MR JONES, ATF needs a written code of conduct for anyone above the ASAC level, clearly explaining how they will be demoted to a street agent or fired for certain egregious behaviors including but definitely not limited to having a sexual relationship with a subordinate. How many of our leadership stooges have done this before and walked away laughing.


Other rumors on the street are that Newell will be receiving a performance bonus for 2011,and that more strange things are afoot with the SAC at the Newark Field Div. Can anyone shed some light on these rumors?

It is deplorable to think a select few have done so many nasty things to so many hard-working employees and received so little in terms of consequences. At the very least, Congress needs to intervene and revise our agency's disciplinary and accountability measures for GS 14's and up. Supervisors must receive serious consequences for violations of regs, poor decisions and other questionable actions, to include mandatory reduction in grade. Send 'em back to the field when they screw up. Supervisors with sustained findings of sexual harrassment and worse must be removed immediately. Our agency's Internal Affairs unit must also be restructured - stop putting those who were known as weak investigators into the unit, and stop retaliating against vocal critics. Senior Special Agents with strong investigative creds should be assigned as "street" GS 14's to conduct IAD cases.

Till then, let's all keep working hard to put bad guys in jail, and maintain those great working relationships with the locals and prosecutors.

Perhaps the budget is an area where this website can make a difference? Instead of assigning cars to Admin/Support positions such as DOO's, SOO's, and PIO's, why not provide them with a car only for mission critical travel each day, which does not include home to work privileges. These folks seldom if ever work after hours or need to have take home vehicles. You could also have these staffers pay for their own parking since they would be commuting in personal vehicles. The savings would be astronomical! While we are at it, any SAC or ASAC who has a commute in excess of 50 miles from home to work one way should have to reimburse the "G" for each mile over that amount. Keep the ideas coming.

A salute to those who served in the Armed Forces! 1. I was unaware that ATF is allowed to be different from any agencies with respect to hiring of Vets. Are you sure about that? If this is true, why is ATF allowed to take a radically different approach? For that matter, shouldn't ATF use the same approach to Ops Plans and other matters as the FBI and DEA? 2. Early outs - any updates? 3. DOC - You reference an OIG "allegation" about NIBIN. Please explain what you know and how you found out about "gross mishandling and misappropriation of NIBIN funds" so everyone has a better understanding. Those are some serious allegations if what you say is true. I haven't heard anything about what you allege. However, I am aware that NIBIN is a potentially great tool that is underused and unappreciated.

Time for a reality check Doc Holiday. This entire website is full of postings about individual transgressions which highlight our agency's lack of accountability and oversight. Many of these same postings are incoherent rantings, filled with personal feelings or worse. The last sentence in my post about creating a discussion for Mr. Strip Club Gov's stories is sarcasm. Relax.

The strip club GOV is NOT folklore. Nor is the Cadillac SAC and ASAC. Neither is Mr. "Lack of Candor" as SAC of Denver, and on and on. The point here is accountability and oversight, NOT individual transgressions.

Apostate, Very true words. How can Mr. Strip Club GOV get away with saying that to a Senior Agent? There is no incentive for anyone to remain a street agent into their late 40's or early 50's. Years ago, lots of people stayed on because they enjoyed it, and found it rewarding. Similar to being on a Navy ship, where the Capt. and XO would consult with the Chief for advice on just about everything. Talent is leaving ATF for a reason. We are starting to become an Agency full of inexperienced 14's & 15's who abuse subordinates, overindulge in alcohol, misuse their position for personal gain, and other nasty things. Too many Snr. Mgt. officials are more interested in taking care of a select group of favorites rather than doing the right thing. How is this possible. We need some oversight from Congress fast! Can someone please start a Discussion Topic just for Mr. Strip Club GOV folklore? There have got to be some good true stories out there. That should shut him up.