U.S. Attorneys

U.S. Attorneys litigate for the government in criminal and civil proceedings. They prosecute persons charged with violating federal criminal law, represent the government in civil cases, and collect money and property owed to the government. In view of the independence and the discretion exercised by U.S. Attorneys in determining which cases to prosecute and recent growth in the size and the cost of their operations, this report determines (1) how the Justice Department communicates national priorities to the U.S. Attorneys; (2) how selected U.S. Attorneys establish their priorities and coordinate them with law enforcement agencies in their districts; and (3) what, if any, measures Justice uses to assess U.S. Attorneys' effectiveness in meeting national priorities.

GAO found that: (1) DOJ communicates broad, national law enforcement priorities to U.S. Attorneys through informal channels, such as congressional testimony, speeches, budget memoranda, and press conferences; (2) the U.S. Attorneys arrive at priorities informally, basing them on the Attorney General's priorities, their own experience and knowledge of the district, as well as input from other law enforcement agency staff; (3) the primary DOJ mechanism for assessing the activities of U.S. Attorneys includes a broad review of overall operations every 3 to 4 years; (4) DOJ is incorporating new methods for determining whether U.S. Attorneys are addressing national and local law enforcement priorities; (5) some existing measures of U.S. Attorneys' caseloads appear to be inaccurate due to the unreliability of some performance data; and (6) DOJ has initiated steps to improve the quality of its information.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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