Our view: Fixing the system

The controversy over the firing of John McKay, who was the U.S. attorney for Western Washington, has provided a glimpse into the cumbersome, contentious process of coordinating communications among a variety of law enforcement agencies as they try to safeguard the nation against terrorism.

The 9/11 Commission spotlighted how the inability of local, state and federal agencies to talk to one another hindered efforts to head off the terrorist attacks and thwarted first responders.

The commission recommended efforts to share information so that the various information silos could be linked.

In response, the U.S Justice Department put McKay in charge of a group of U.S. attorneys to help put together an information-sharing system.

McKay took his job seriously, pushing for the resources to assemble the LInX system, a Web-based pilot program that allows agencies to easily tap into information related to vehicles, weapons, criminal histories and other data from a variety of jurisdictions.

Whether the Justice Department took the effort seriously is questionable because it kept slashing McKay’s budget, which led to layoffs, making his task more difficult.

Frustrated by the lack of support, McKay wrote a letter in August that was signed by 17 other U.S. attorneys and sent it to the Justice Department. He also told a Seattle newspaper that budget cuts had stretched his office to the limit.

E-mails released in the wake of the U.S. attorneys controversy show that top Justice officials were more upset with the fact that McKay was airing complaints than the lack of progress on coordinated communications five years after the terrorist attacks.

“These comments are not exactly helpful. … anything we can do?” asked Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman, in an e-mail to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

This is especially troubling from an administration that has made national security the cornerstone of the past three national elections.

U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, a Republican and a former King County sheriff, is upset with the treatment of McKay. He told the Seattle Times that McKay was instrumental in getting the feds to work more closely with local law enforcement.

“John was advocating for us. I’m not sure that’s where his bosses in D.C. were coming from,” Reichert said.

After the hubbub over the prosecutors purge dies down, it would be nice to know where the feds stand on the matter of linking communications to help thwart terrorism.

Judging from the bits and pieces of information that have trickled out in recent weeks, LInX is a sore subject within the Justice Department.

Why? And does the agency have a better way to address a problem that should’ve been fixed long ago?