Combating Corruption, Customs & Border Protection Is Seeking Deep Reform John Burnett - NPR/KPBS
go to original October 30, 2016

CBP Mission Overview (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection - the nation's largest law enforcement agency - is attempting to reform itself. Washington spends $13 billion on border control and immigration enforcement, more than every other federal law enforcement force combined.

Yet the huge agency - with 56,000 gun-toting agents - is dogged by complaints that too many of them will take a bribe or use excessive force and avoid consequences.

An independent review panel named by the Homeland Security secretary faulted CBP for its "broken disciplinary process."

Under the leadership of Customs Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, who was confirmed in March 2014, the agency is trying to bring about more transparency and accountability, and train its personnel to de-escalate violent encounters.

Agents who work on the border every day contend that it's unlike any environment in American law enforcement.

...The challenge is how to change the culture of an agency that believes in its own exceptionalism - a cross between a police agency and an anti-terrorism force.

Read the rest at KPBS

Related: Border Patrol Agent: 'We Enforce the Laws, But We're Not the Ones That Create Them' (Global Nation)

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