Federal watchdog to examine DOJ law enforcement task forces after NBC News report
Congress' investigative arm is launching a review of how the DOJ oversees its task forces, which often include local police officers, after an NBC News report.
Congress’ investigative arm is launching a probe of the policies and practices of Justice Department law enforcement task forces in response to a request from Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., a spokesperson for the Government Accountability Office told NBC News.
Ossoff, chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on human rights and law, sent a letter asking the GAO on March 14 to open a review of how the Justice Department oversees its task forces, which often include local police officers. The request comes after NBC News published a series on the lack of accountability for federal law enforcement agencies and the local officers granted federal powers who serve on task forces.
Ossoff asked the GAO to focus on the Justice Department’s main law enforcement agencies — the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; and the U.S. Marshals Service — “to promote clarity regarding federal policies and practices surrounding these task forces” and answer how the Justice Department provides oversight of its task forces, particularly local officers deputized with federal powers who work on the teams.
GAO spokesperson Chuck Young confirmed Tuesday that the agency accepted Ossoff’s request and will begin its “in-depth examination” into federal task forces within the next few months.
In December, NBC News published a series of stories examining how federal law enforcement officers harm people with little to no accountability and the contrasts between the standards local officers face when they work for their departments compared with those they are held to serving on federal task forces. One of the stories examined the steep challenges for local prosecutors trying to convict an officer from Georgia, Ossoff’s state, in the 2019 killing of Jimmy Atchison, who was fatally shot by an Atlanta police officer serving on an FBI task force.
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