[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 31 (Friday, February 14, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7091-7092]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-3689]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Privacy Act of 1974, as amended; System of Records

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service, Treasury.


[[Page 7092]]


ACTION: Notice of Proposed Amendment to a Privacy Act System of 
Records.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 
1974, 5 U.S.C. 552a, the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service 
(Service), gives notice of a proposed amendment to the system of 
records entitled ``Assault and Threat Investigation Files--Treasury/IRS 
60.001.'' This system notice was last published in its entirety in the 
Federal Register, Vol. 60, No. 217, page 56834, November 9, 1995.

DATES: Comments must be received no later than March 17, 1997. The 
alteration to the system of records will be effective March 26, 1997, 
unless comments are received which result in a contrary determination.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Brian C. Dwyer, Office of the 
Chief Inspector, 1401 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800, Arlington, VA 22209, 
Telephone: (703) 235-0625. This is not a toll--free number.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    The Potentially Dangerous Taxpayer (PDT) program was established in 
1984 as a tool to identify individuals and groups espousing violence 
against the Service employees engaged in the performance of their 
official duties. The purpose of this amendment is to clarify certain 
existing criteria and add additional criteria by which taxpayers are 
designated as potentially dangerous.
    This system of records includes individuals who attempt to 
interfere with the administration of internal revenue laws through 
assaults, threats, or forcible interference of any officer or employee 
while discharging the official duties of his/her position. Among such 
individuals are those designated as potentially dangerous, based on 
verifiable evidence or information which falls within any of the 
revised five criteria.
    The Service is authorized to investigate attempts to interfere with 
the administration of internal revenue laws through assaults, threats, 
or forcible interference. The Service is permitted to collect and 
maintain information that concerns individuals involved in efforts to 
disrupt tax administration, by various means, including actual as well 
as potential assaults and threats directed against Service employees.
    The addition of new criteria by which taxpayers are designated as 
potentially dangerous can be expected to increase the number of 
individuals who are covered by this system of records. The new criteria 
will permit designation as potentially dangerous for those individuals 
who attempt to interfere with the administration of the internal 
revenue laws by threatening, assaulting, or intimidating members of 
Service employees' immediate families, and those individuals who are 
active members of groups that advocate violence against Federal 
employees where advocating such violence could reasonably be understood 
to threaten the safety of Service employees and impede the performance 
of their official duties. The system of record notice is also revised 
to add a reference to the Manager's Security Handbook, IRM 1(16)12, 
with respect to the safeguard requirements for paper storage of 
records.
    Because the changes can be expected to increase the number of 
individuals covered by the PDT program and therefore the number of 
individuals included within this system, a report has been submitted to 
Congress and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), pursuant to OMB 
Circular A-130.
    The system of records identified as Assault and Threat 
Investigation Files--Treasury/IRS 60.001, as set forth in the Federal 
Register, 60 FR 56834 dated November 9, 1995, is amended as follows:
Treasury/IRS--60.001

System Name:
    Assault and Threat Investigation Files--Treasury/IRS.
  
* * * * *

Categories of Individuals Covered by the System:
    Individuals attempting to interfere with the administration of 
internal revenue laws through assaults, threats, or forcible 
interference of any officer or employee while discharging the official 
duties of his/her position, including individuals designated as 
potentially dangerous taxpayers (PDTs), based on verifiable evidence or 
information that fit any of the following five criteria: (1) 
Individuals who assault employees or members of their immediate 
families; (2) Individuals who attempt to intimidate or threaten 
employees or members of their immediate families through specific 
threats of bodily harm, a show of weapons, the use of animals, or 
through other specific threatening or intimidating behavior; (3) 
Individuals who are active members of groups that advocate violence 
against Internal Revenue Service employees specifically, or against 
Federal employees generally where advocating such violence could 
reasonably be understood to threaten the safety of Service employees 
and impede the performance of their official duties; (4) Individuals 
who have committed the acts set forth in any of the above criteria, but 
whose acts have been directed against employees of other governmental 
agencies at Federal, state, county, or local levels; and (5) 
Individuals who are not designated as potentially dangerous taxpayers 
through application of the above criteria, but who have demonstrated a 
clear propensity toward violence through act (s) of violent behavior 
within the five--year period immediately preceding the time of 
designation as potentially dangerous.
  
* * * * *

Safeguards:
    Access controls will not be less than those provided by the 
Manager's Security Handbook, IRM 1(16)12. The records are accessible to 
Inspection personnel on a need--to--know basis, all of whom have been 
the subject of a background investigation. Disclosure of information 
through remote terminals is restricted through the use of passwords and 
sign--on protocols which are periodically changed; these terminals are 
accessible only to authorized persons.
  
* * * * *

    Dated: February 3, 1997.

Alex Rodriguez,
Deputy Assistant Secretary (Administration).

[FR Doc. 97-3689 Filed 2-13-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE: 4810-30-F