DIOG Cheating Exam Investigation

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of the Inspector General

Investigation of Allegations of Cheating on the FBI’sDomestic Investigations andOperations Guide (DIOG) Exam

Office of the Inspector GeneralOversight and Review DivisionSeptember 2010

I. INTRODUCTIONA. Initiation of Investigation

In December 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)implemented a new Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG), which described the procedures its employees must follow when conductingdomestic investigations. The DIOG replaced several older sets of guidelinesthat separately addressed criminal investigations, national securityinvestigations, and foreign intelligence collection.According to testimony provided in 2008 by the FBI’s General Counsel tothe Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the DIOG is an outgrowth of theFBI’s post-September 11, 2001, transformation from primarily a lawenforcement agency to a domestic intelligence agency that focuses on itsnational security and law enforcement missions. To help implement thistransformation, in 2007 the FBI asked the Attorney General to combine severalsets of guidelines that had previously governed the FBI into a single set that would reflect the FBI’s changed priorities. After lengthy review, discussions,and consultations, the Attorney General implemented the revised guidelines,entitled “Attorney General Consolidated Guidelines for FBI DomesticOperations” (Consolidated Guidelines), which took effect on December 1, 2008.According to an FBI press release, the Consolidated Guidelines “ensurethat the FBI’s operating rules are consistent with the Bureau’s mission andcurrent operational needs while at the same time protecting the privacy andcivil liberties of Americans.” The DIOG, in turn, established detailed internalFBI rules and procedures that implemented the new Consolidated Guidelines. The new Guidelines created some public controversy. Some members of Congress and advocacy groups argued that the Guidelines expanded the FBI’sinvestigative power in ways that could potentially infringe on citizens’ privacyand civil rights, while the FBI argued that the Guidelines were a consolidationof existing authorities.In response to concerns about the proposed new Guidelines, the FBIassured Congress that the FBI would ensure that the FBI complied with thenew Guidelines. For example, the FBI General Counsel testified that the “newguidelines take seriously the need to ensure compliance and provide formeaningful oversight to protect privacy rights and civil liberties.” She alsotestified that the guidelines would not take effect until the FBI had conducted1

“comprehensive training to ensure that [FBI] personnel understand these newrules and will be ready to apply them in their operations.”

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In accord with this testimony, the FBI implemented comprehensivetraining on the DIOG for approximately 20,000 FBI agents, analysts, andtechnicians. These employees were required to complete 16.5 hours of liveclassroom-style training. Moreover, after taking this training, the employeeshad to take and pass (with a score of 80 or above) a written, computerized 51-question exam concerning the DIOG.Written instructions given both before and during the exam specified thatemployees could use the DIOG and notes to take the exam, but they were notallowed to consult with other employees. In addition, Question 51 of the examrequired all employees to “certify that I only consulted the DIOG, notes, ortraining aids but no other person while taking this exam.”As discussed below, the training on the DIOG started in the spring of 2009 and continued into the winter of 2010. FBI employees were encouragedto take the exam soon after completing the training, and the vast majority tookit between May 2009 and January 2010.However, in September 2009, the FBI received an allegation that threetop managers from the Washington Field Office (WFO) took the DIOG examtogether and that WFO attorneys were present while the managers took theDIOG exam.Later, the FBI received four allegations about additional misconductrelated to the DIOG exam.In addition, FBI officials expressed concerns to the Office of the InspectorGeneral (OIG) that a large number of FBI employees had completed the examextremely quickly – over 200 finished in 20 minutes or less – and that many of them received high passing scores. FBI officials who had developed the examstated that it should take approximately 90 minutes or longer to complete theexam. In addition, the FBI reported to the OIG that it had received allegationsthat FBI employees, in addition to those in the WFO, had cheated on the examby sharing answer sheets or by receiving assistance during the examination.Because of the concerns that there may have been widespread assistancegiven during the exam, contrary to the instructions for the exam and the

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FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni, “Statement before the Senate Select Committeeon Intelligence” (September 23, 2008),http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress08/caproni092308.htm(accessed August 4, 2010).

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