Case Study Analysis By: Jacqueline Mendoza Michael Reveles April Rodriguez Brisza Rodriguez

What is the DEA?  A federal law enforcement agency  Under the United States Department of Justice

What does the DEA do?  Cracks down on : Drug smuggling Drug smuggling Drug Use Drug Use  Coordinates and pursues U.S drug investigations abroad

Mission  Enforce controlled substance laws and regulations of the U.S.  Bring down the criminal and civil justice systems whose organizations are involved in growing, manufacturing, distributing or trafficking controlled substances.  Support non-enforcement programs that are aimed at reducing availability of illicit controlled substances

History  Created in July 1973  Founded by President Richard Nixon through an Executive Order  Had 1,470 Special Agents  Budget of less than $75 million  43 foreign offices in 31 countries

 Have 5,235 Special Agents  Budget greater than $2.3 billion  87 foreign offices in 63 Countries

The Problem DEA faces today… Does NOT have anything to deal with special agents or fighting the war on drugs. BUT…

Could possibly play a role if not resolved soon Mail distribution in the offices

How and when did this problem arise? When ~ 5 years ago How ~ 2 possibilities Time consuming to approve for new government position (i.e. background check which takes up to a year) 1 Position may have been ignored due to hiring freeze which has occurred in the recent years 2 Mail clerk hired but not made permanent position. Now position is vacant.

The mail responsibilities cover processing, delivering and distributing which lie amongst the office workers which sets them back on their daily tasks and takes focus on what they are trying to accomplish.

Temporary solution was implemented  A schedule was created for office assistants to take over mail clerk duties  They didn’t agree with this decision made by the office workers  Unfair they were punished because management didn’t handle it before it became a problem

Miscommunication  Office workers were left to deal with the problem  No one could agree what was the best way to take care of mail problem  Duties given to office assistances  Office workers and assistances couldn’t handle the work load of mail clerk  Managers did not take initiative to solve problem with office workers and assistances

Why management failed at resolving this issue  There is a Special Agent in Charge whom is fairly new to the El Paso Field Division and is in charge of 4 other divisions. It can be difficult to get time with him to bring up the issue for him to resolve because of the chain of command.  A former supervisor made the poor decision of appointing someone and not making it an official position as well as not getting a superiors approval and now the office faces with daily mail problems.

Strengths:  New Special Agent in Charge who wants to be involved and in the know of what is going on. Weaknesses  Don’t follow the the chain of command Opportunities  DEA is growing with BATs (Basic Agent Training) fresh out of the academy Threats:  Border Violence  Agents have a very important job that really puts their lives in danger.

Solution 1  The girls could follow the duty schedule that was made which would only have them cover once every two weeks. I believe this works to their benefit because this allows them to get up, walk around and do something different. I know the office assistants don’t work eight hours straight, so this allows them to take a short break in doing what they were doing. The good thing about this is that it would be temporary until they received permission to announce the vacancy.

Solution 2  A somewhat different solution than solution number one would be to keep the girls on the duty schedule permanently only to reward them with an on the spot awards. On the spot awards are given to you if your boss puts you in for one once a year. They are more like cash awards; this is something that I think would benefit everyone because it repays them for their help when it is an inconvenience.