Opinion ID: 438801
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: DEA's Personnel Requirements

Text: 6 Hiring. The Civil Service Commission Handbook establishes the minimum entry level requirements for special agents. Depending on qualifications, special agents will enter at either GS-7 or GS-9. The requirements for entry at GS-7 are three years of general experience and one year of specialized experience. The requirements for GS-9 are three years of general experience and two years of specialized experience. 4 In addition, special agents are defined as criminal investigators, and this classification requires that one year of their prior specialized experience be in law enforcement or comparable work. 5 7 Work Assignments. Special agents carry out the variety of assignments described above. Race influences the location of an agent's assignment. All other things being equal, DEA will assign black agents to areas where a large percentage of the suspected violators are black. Race also influences the type of work agents receive. Black agents tend to perform a disproportionately large amount of undercover work. DEA generally infiltrates drug networks from the bottom up, and operates on the assumption that black agents will be more readily able to infiltrate organizations consisting primarily of blacks. The nature of an agent's work assignments will have an important bearing on the agent's prospects for promotion. Though some undercover work is desirable, a surfeit of such work injures an agent's promotion opportunities because the agent is unable to obtain the breadth of experience needed for promotions. Findings p 23, 508 F.Supp. at 705. 8 Promotions. At DEA promotions from GS-7 to GS-9, from GS-9 to GS-11, and from GS-11 to GS-12 are noncompetitive. A special agent receives a promotion upon completion of one year of service in grade, recommendation by the agent's group supervisor, concurrence by a second level supervisor, and approval by a DEA regional director. 9 Promotions from GS-12 up through GS-18, the highest GS level at DEA, are competitive agency-wide. To receive such a promotion an agent must satisfy the minimum in-grade requirement, be placed on the best qualified list by the appropriate rating and ranking board, and be selected by the appropriate selecting official. In making determinations the rating and ranking boards rely primarily on the agent's most recent performance appraisal, information on disciplinary action within the last two years, and the agent's application and profile sheet. Those agents chosen for the best qualified list are then ranked numerically on a series of performance factors. 6 Rating and ranking boards have not been provided with any particular guidance for assigning numerical values to various aspects of an agent's performance. Findings p 4, 508 F.Supp. at 695.