The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) took a major hit from the Department of Justice (DOJ) last week after it ordered the agency to stop conducting certain kinds of searches.
According to Breitbart, the Justice Department ordered the DEA to "suspend searches of passengers at airports and other places" in the wake of a bombshell report from a watchdog group that uncovered "concerns" regarding how the DEA agents were going about the searches.
The report, published by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, found that the agency wasn't in compliance with its own policies regarding the searches.
The Justice Department issued a press release detailing why it took the action against the federal law enforcement agency.
The OIG's office found that the agency being out of compliance with its own policies regarding those passenger searches "resulted in DEA and DEA Task Force Group personnel creating potentially significant operational and legal risks."
DOJ suspends DEA searches at airports over civil rights concerns https://t.co/3GFxKhVkrm pic.twitter.com/Gt2OlnjBF3
— New York Post (@nypost) November 23, 2024
Breitbart noted:
Examples of how the DEA was “creating potentially significant operational and legal risks,” were the DEA not documenting “each consensual encounter,” and required training for DEA and DEA Task Force Group personnel being suspended since 2023.
A press release issued by the DOJ detailed what happened in the lead-up to the decision to suspend the searches.
"In 2023, the DEA suspended the transportation interdiction training required by DEA policy and has not restarted it,” the press release said.
"As a result, the DEA was not ensuring that all DEA Task Force Group personnel conducting transportation interdiction activities completed that required training, despite the DEA’s prior representations to the OIG, in connection with resolution of a recommendation in a 2015 OIG report, that the DEA would do so, creating significant risk that DEA Task Force Group personnel will conduct transportation interdiction activities improperly."
Users across social media shared their opinions on whether or not the searches should continue, with some saying that DEA agents should continue to be allowed such searches to prevent incidents on flights.
Others applauded the Justice Department's decision.
"The DOJ halts DEA airport searches amid worries about civil rights violations. A significant step toward ensuring accountability in law enforcement practices," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Yeah why not, what could possibly go wrong."
