Page 17 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR

responsibility for protecting our borders
against smugglers and protecting the revenue.
The "turf syndrome"—don't you run into that problem because you wind
up submerging your identity when
you get involved in task forces?
I think I've already answered that,
but let me ask a question: Is it more im
portant to have an identity or to get the
job done? Of course we'll take credit wherever credit is due. To place concern about the identity of the organization be fore concern for the interdiction of narcot ics is ludicrous. Of course we're all proud to be Customs officers and I expect noth ing less than pride from my personnel in the Pacific Region, but we're also striving for professionalism and I expect nothing less than a professional attitude toward other law enforcement agencies. Parochial ism is incompatible with professionalism.
Are you satisfied with the quality of enforcement in this Region?
I believe there is always room for
improvement. However, I can see that in some respects, with the limited resources
we have, we cannot do everything with the same degree of thoroughness. We are
going to have to adopt, as we already have, a policy of selective enforcement.
By selectively identifying the targets on which we want to focus our resources we
can do our job effectively and efficiently. I have designated the improvement
of our intelligence capability in the
Pacific Region as a top priority. I have
also designated the revitalization of the
Patrol force as a trop priority. I perceive
the Pacific Region Patrol force as being a
dynamic, highly flexible, multi-faceted tactical force.
There seems to be a definite move ment toward expanding our intelli
gence capabilities. Aren't we re cruiting for intelligence analysts
right now?
We have created a Regional Intelli
gence Unit. We've made some personnel selections. We have the office space, we
have some equipment. We approved and contracted for an intelligence trainin;
program for the Regional Intelligence of ficers and the people who will be assigned
to the Operational Analysis Units.
Do you think that Customs is over burdened with the various enforce ment priorities we have?
No, I don't think it is. We have
priorities and these priorities will change from time to time. Who heard of Opera
tion EXODUS ten years ago? It didn't exist, and I am sure that in the next ten
years there will be other priorities. I think we can always use some additional people
on the enforcement side and the Com missioner has been very, very active in
ensuring that we get additional enforce ment staffing. Additionally, the entire
Service is in an enforcement mode, that's the name of the game. And I might add that in the Pacific Region, the tradi tionally non-enforcement employees are doing an outstanding job in adapting to their new enforcement roles.
How do you characterize your man
agement style?
Mission-oriented, people-oriented
and objective-oriented. I place a high de
gree of trust in my subordinates. I do not intend to do the SAC's or the District
Directors' work from the Region, but I do hold my District Directors and SAC's accountable for getting the job done in accordance with the Region's policy and direction. I give them all the support that I possibly can to get the job done. That includes management support and re sources. I believe in pushing decision
making authority as far down as possible within the organization and then holding
my managers accountable for exercising that authority in a productive, profes
sional manner. I try to enhance com munications upwards and downwards and horizontally. It is really tough to break through two layers of hierarchy in any organization to communicate, but I intend to do so.
The Olympics will be coming to Los
Angeles in 1984. Do you anticipate any major problems?
No, I don't anticipate any major problems. I think the entire Olympic planning process, which includes all levels of government, must hope for the best and plan for the worst. The planning function has been going on for close to four years now and I think we've got a pretty good handle on it.
Although we don't have any hard
figures yet, I think the numbers of people that will be coming directly into Los
Angeles from other countries will not be as large as initially anticipated by our
planners. I believe the international en tries will be divided among New York,
Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Houston. So everybody is going to share in the increased workload.
You're going to be establishing some Explorer Scout Posts in the
Region. Do you have any plans for mulated yet as to how you are go
ing to use the Explorers?
Yes. For more than two years I was
responsible for administering the Ex
plorer program for the Los Angeles Police Department. We had the largest
law enforcement Explorer post in the
country. We had Explorers that rode in radio cars, performed crowd control
operations, helped search crime scenes and did administrative work in police sta tions. Last year the LAPD Explorers contributed 250,000 manhours to LAPD
doing non-critical work which otherwise would have had to have been done by
police officers. That's more than 100
man-years. I could do a lot of work with 100 man-years in the Pacific Region! It's
another example of the leverage princi
ple. In the Customs Service we can use
Explorers at land border crossings to assist the inspectors at the primary and
secondary stations. Explorers can assist shift supervisors with administrative
work. They can help do cargo inspec tions. We can use Explorers to assist at
airports to facilitate passenger process ing. We are going to have an Explorer
program for the Pacific Region and each district director will be responsible for
creating an Explorer post.
Do you see in the immediate future increased automation for Customs officers?
Yes, there is a major automa
tion initiative presently underway. I
don't anticipate a decrease in work load;
on the contrary, there's going to be a
steadily increasing workload in the
Pacific Region. The improvement in the
economy means more commerce; more
commerce means more work, more con
tainers, more things to look at, more
ships, more cargo planes. We will not be
getting a commensurate increase in per
sonnel to do that work. We just cannot
keep increasing the Customs Service per sonnel by 10% each time we get a 10%
increase in workload. The alternative then is to handle that kind of workload
increase, which is primarily an inspection function, by the utilization of automated
systems. ACCEPT, which is part of the Automated Commercial System, will be
going on line with a number of subsys tems which will enhance our ability to do
more with less. Automation is one of the four priorities established by the Com missioner. We simply do not have enough people to do all the work and we cannot keep doing things the way we have done them in the past.
The world is moving into an era of high technology and information process ing. The Customs Service must keep pace with our changing society, and that calls for us to move into the era of auto mation now.
CUSTOMS TODAY / WINTER 1984
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