NRC staffers quietly become gun-toting cops

Old document, but still cited
Caputo dismissed the memorandum of understanding as something that has been superseded by “customs and usage,” yet the agreement is often cited in current NRC documents.

The Marshals Service would not disclose how often blanket deputation is approved for federal offices that don’t have law enforcement authority nor name any other offices that have obtained it. After reviewing a list of questions about the deputations for two weeks, the service referred many of them back to the NRC and to the Deputy Attorney General’s Office at the Justice Department. A Justice Department spokesman promised on two occasions to seek answers but did not follow up.

Jeffrey Merrifield

Jeffrey Merrifield, the only one of the five NRC commissioners to respond to requests for comment on the deputation, said commissioners knew that OI was seeking blanket deputation and agreed it was necessary “if for no other reason than to defend themselves.” But Merrifield was under the mistaken impression that OI agents had some law enforcement authority without being deputized.

His comments echoed Caputo, who said, “You just never know what you’re going to run up against … the kinds of people you’re going to be talking to.”

Neither offered specific examples of dangerous situations that NRC agents have encountered.

Asked why the NRC didn’t seek input from Congress, Merrifield, the only attorney currently serving on the panel, replied, “We felt this was in the ministerial authority of the commission.”

James Foster

Foster, a onetime gun-carrying federal air marshal, admits he has an ax to grind because he was forced out of his job as unqualified to be a criminal investigator when OI was created to replace the office where he worked. But he notes that he went on to work in other NRC jobs for 20 years and retired proud of his career with the agency, which he still believes accomplishes its overall mission well.

Now, he says, he continues to raise the issue “because it’s the right thing to do. I firmly believe in it. I believe the agency’s misspending money and this is causing the wrong focus for NRC investigations.”

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