Bureau of Justice Statistics Director Demoted

From Scienticity

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Revision as of 23:32, 25 October 2005

The draft of this article is incomplete.

Lawrence Greenfeld was appointed by G.W. Bush as Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice, in 2001^[1]. The Bureau, where Greenfeld had worked for some 23 years, is a small agency within the large Justice Department, in charge of producing statistical reports on many topics related to crime, the penal system, and the justice system.

In late August, 2005, attempts to manipulate contents of the announcement of the results of a report being prepared by Greenfeld for political reasons, which were resisted by Greenfeld, led shortly thereafter to his demotion.

Contents 1 Events 2 Response 3 Status 4 Notes 5 Additional Sources

Events

The report, "Contacts between Police and the Public: Findings from the 2002 National Survey",^[2] was a "survey of 80,000 people, which was eventually issued in April without a news release, found that minority drivers were three times as likely to have their vehicles searched during traffic stops as white drivers"^[3]

As reported in the New York Times^[4]

Amid the debate over the traffic stop study, Mr. Greenfeld was called to the office of Robert D. McCallum Jr., then the third-ranking Justice Department official, and questioned about his handling of the matter, people involved in the episode said. Some weeks later, he was called to the White House, where personnel officials told him he was being replaced as director and was urged to resign, six months before he was scheduled to retire with full pension benefits, the officials said.

After Mr. Greenfeld invoked his right as a former senior executive to move to a lesser position, the administration agreed to allow him to seek another job, and he is likely to be detailed to the Bureau of Prisons, the officials said.

Response

Status

Notes

1. ^ White House, "Presidential Nomination: Lawrence Albert Greenfeld, whitehouse.gov, undated.
2. ^ "Contacts between Police and the Public: Findings from the 2002 National Survey", Bureau of Justice Statistics, 8 April 2005.
3. ^ Dan Eggen, "Official in Racial Profiling Study Demoted: Justice Department Denies Political Pressure; Lawmaker Demands Investigation", Washington Post, 25 August 2005.
4. ^ Eric Lichtblau, "Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion', New York Times, 24 August 2005.

Additional Sources

• "Demotion of BJS Director Highlights Bush Administration's Attempt to Politicize Data on Profiling", Watching Justice, 29 August 2005.
• Brendan Coyne, "Groups Dismayed by Gov’t Reaction to Racial Profiling Study", The New Standard, 1 September 2005.