Homeland Security tightens scrutiny of internal misconduct

WASHINGTON — Employees accused of misconduct at the Department of Homeland Security could face more stringent penalties under an overhaul announced Thursday that follows complaints about the handling of internal discipline in the third largest U.S. government agency.

DHS said it will centralize serious misconduct investigations instead of allowing them to be handled by components of a sprawling organization that includes Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The new procedures are the result of a review ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in April after reports revealed that thousands of employees had experienced sexual harassment and misconduct and that some DHS components paid settlements without penalizing or even investigating the perpetrators.

“The deeply concerning reports this spring underscored the need for urgent action to prevent and address harassment and other misconduct in the workplace,” Mayorkas said in a statement outlining the changes.

Some of the changes to the internal disciplinary procedures, Mayorkas said, have already been put in place while others will occur in the coming months after consultations with the various unions representing an agency that has about 230,000 employees.

A key aspect of the changes will be to make the response to allegations of misconduct as well as the potential penalties more uniform across DHS, the agency said.

Employees found to have committed some kind of misconduct, which can include such behavior as theft, sexual harassment or abusing people detained by the law enforcement components, have typically faced a broad range of potential penalties.

The penalties will be more specifically spelled out and the range narrowed under the new policy to create a “more accurate system of accountability,” a senior DHS official said.

In some cases, when the potential range has been too broad, the penalty for misconduct has been “inadequate,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the policy changes ahead of their release.