Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: We welcome this opportunity to appear before you today to discuss three areas of concern raised by the Committee last summer in its fiscal year 1996 appropriations report on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Those concerns involved ATF’s (1) use of force, (2) effect on the number of licensed firearms dealers, and (3) compliance with legislative restrictions on maintaining certain firearms licensee data. Today, we are releasing reports that address the first two concerns—use of force and licensing of firearms dealers. With respect to the third concern, data restrictions, our work is ongoing. As agreed, therefore, we will summarize our findings related to one data system—ATF’s system for maintaining records of firearms licensees who have gone out of business. With regard to the use-of-force issue, you asked us to (1) identify and describe ATF’s policies for the use of deadly force, (2) determine how ATF conveys its policies to agents, (3) determine the reasons for and the extent to which ATF uses dynamic entry and the equipment used to accomplish these entries, and (4) determine whether ATF has complied with its procedures for investigating shooting and alleged excessive force incidents. Moreover, you asked us to compare these issues with the way that the Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) address them. To place ATF’s use-of-force incidents in perspective, from fiscal years 1990 through 1995, ATF, on average, arrested about 8,000 suspects but was involved in fewer than 10 reported shooting or alleged excessive force incidents annually. In October 1995, the Department of the Treasury and Justice adopted deadly force policies for their component agencies that are uniform except for certain agency mission-specific provisions. Both policies provide that officers may use deadly force only when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person. the new policy. The 1988 ATF and 1995 Treasury policies were consistent in that both policies generally authorized the use of such force only when the law enforcement officer reasonably believed or perceived that there was an imminent threat or danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person. The two distinctions were that (1) the 1995 Treasury policy refers to the use of “deadly force,” while the 1988 ATF policy referred more specifically only to the use of a “firearm” and (2) the 1995 Treasury policy allows for the use of deadly force only when the law enforcement officer has a “reasonable belief” that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, while the 1988 ATF policy allowed for the use of such force when the agent “perceives” such a threat. Additional discussion regarding these policies and distinctions, as well as those discussed below, is provided in chapter 2 (pp. 34 to 36) of our Use-of-Force report. In addition, the prior ATF policy was, with three distinctions, consistent with prior DEA and FBI policies. The prior ATF policy was consistent with prior DEA and FBI policies in that they generally authorized the use of deadly force only when the agents reasonably believed or perceived that there was a threat or danger of death or serious bodily injury to the agent or another person. The three distinctions were that (1) only ATF’s policy provided the additional restriction that the threat of death or serious bodily harm be “imminent”; (2) the ATF and DEA policies referred to the shooting of “firearms,” while the FBI policy used the term “deadly force”; and (3) the ATF policy used the term “perceives,” while the DEA and FBI used the terms “reasonably believes” and “reason to believe,” respectively. ATF conveys its deadly force policies to new agents through training. Our discussions with training officials, reviews of training materials and policies, and observations showed that the training provided new ATF agents to introduce them to the deadly force policies was consistent with the Treasury/ATF deadly force policies, and the types of training provided were consistent with the training provided to new DEA and FBI agents. from a law enforcement officer to one where a subject assaults an officer with the potential for serious bodily harm or death. The model also presents five corresponding levels of force that would be appropriate to respond to the subject’s level of threat. Those responses range from verbal commands when the threat is low to deadly force when the threat is high. Emphasis is placed on resolving situations with the proper level of force while recognizing that situations can escalate and de-escalate from one level to another. Once training is completed, ATF requires that the use-of-force policies are to be reiterated to agents throughout their careers at quarterly firearms requalifications and during tactical operations briefings. DEA and FBI officials said that their deadly force policies also are to be reiterated at firearms requalifications. Dynamic entry, which relies on speed and surprise and may involve forced entry, is one of several tactical procedures used by ATF to execute search and arrest warrants. Dynamic entry was a principal tactical procedure used by ATF, DEA, and FBI when serving high-risk warrants—those where ATF believes that suspects pose a threat of violence—and entry to premises was required. ATF statistics on suspects arrested from firearms investigations during fiscal years 1990 through 1995 showed that 46 percent had previous felony convictions, 24 percent had a history of violence, and 18 percent were armed at arrest. All ATF case agents, including those assigned to special weapons and tactics units, known as Special Response Teams (SRT), are to be trained in the dynamic entry technique. From fiscal years 1993 through 1995, ATF conducted 35,949 investigations and arrested 22,894 suspects. During this same period, SRTs were deployed 523 times, and SRT members were involved in 3 intentional shooting incidents, 1 of which—the Waco operation—resulted in fatalities. We reviewed the available documentation for all 157 SRT deployments for fiscal year 1995 and found that the dynamic entry technique was used almost half the time and was the predominant technique used when entry to a building was required. In none of the 1995 SRT dynamic entries did ATF agents fire their weapons at suspects. vests. In addition to the standard equipment available, SRTs have access to additional firearms, such as bolt-action rifles, and specialized tactical equipment, such as diversionary devices. Equipment used by SRTs is generally comparable to that used by DEA and FBI agents during similar operations. ATF’s procedures for reporting, investigating, and reviewing shooting and excessive force incidents, as revised in October 1994, are consistent with guidelines and/or standards recommended by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency, and the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. For example, agents are required to immediately report shooting incidents to their supervisors, incidents are to be investigated by an independent unit, and certain reports are to be reviewed by a review board on the basis of the nature and seriousness of the incident. Overall, DEA’s and FBI’s procedures for reporting, investigating, and reviewing shooting incidents are comparable to ATF’s. Distinctions in the procedures include (1) DEA and FBI delegate some investigations to their field divisions but ATF does not and (2) DEA’s and FBI’s review boards include representatives from Justice—ATF’s review board does not include representatives from Treasury. Although ATF’s excessive force procedures are comparable to DEA’s, with one distinction relating again to delegation, they are distinct from those employed by FBI. ATF is to investigate allegations of excessive force first and—if warranted—refer them to Justice for possible criminal investigation. In contrast, FBI is to refer all allegations of excessive force to Justice for possible criminal investigation before investigating the allegations itself. had been reviewed by a designated headquarters unit. Our review also showed that ATF’s investigations of 38 reported shootings involving ATF agents firing their weapons at suspects found each to be justified and within the scope of its use-of-force policy. In addition, ATF’s investigations found that 18 of 25 reported excessive force allegations in three misconduct categories were unsubstantiated. Four investigations found evidence of some agent misconduct, two investigations were ongoing at the time of our review, and one was closed without action because ATF determined that there was no need for further review. Agents found to have engaged in misconduct received written reprimands and/or suspensions. Regarding recent declines in the number of firearms dealers, you asked us to (1) determine the extent and nature of the declines; (2) determine what factors contributed to the declines, including whether ATF had a policy to reduce the number of dealers; and (3) obtain the views of pertinent organizations on the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the number of dealers. Since reaching a high point in April 1993, the number of firearms dealerssharply declined by about 35 percent, from about 260,700 to about 168,400 dealers as of September 30, 1995—the lowest number since fiscal year 1980. This decline occurred nationwide and ranged from 23 percent in Montana to 45 percent in Hawaii. To provide a context for interpreting the recent decline, appendix II shows the number of firearms dealers in fiscal years 1975 through 1995. licensees when compared to previous years. Also, a large number of licensees voluntarily surrendered their licenses. Appendix III provides detailed data for fiscal years 1975 through 1995 on application and license activity for all categories of licensees. Our review showed that various factors collectively contributed to the decline in the number of dealers.