FBI delays virtual file network.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis - Federal Bureau of Investigations

While Congress seems to be constantly expanding the U.S. government's data-collection efforts, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is struggling to manage the data it has today.

FBI officials recently said they would not be able to fully deploy a long-awaited computer system to manage the bureau's case files before the end of 2004 as promised, and that they could not predict when the entire system would be in place, according to a New York Times report. The Virtual Case File system, which would allow agents to share information easily--a critical shortcoming of the present system--is already two years behind schedule. One bureau official told the Times that the program might ultimately have to be abandoned.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told a Senate panel after 9/11 that the bureau's computer system was so limited that it could not search its files for combinations of terms such as "flight" and "schools"--the kind of search that might have helped prevent the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Mueller said the system could only search for words such as "flight" and "school" one at a time. According to a...