CSM is partnering with a university law school to examine situations that perhaps are generally acknowledged as “just the way government does business,” but which are actually the result of serious leadership lapses that may rise to the level of ethical negligence because these now-accepted practices prevent agencies from achieving desirable results. Many times performance by various leaders at law enforcement and intelligence agencies erodes into a zone of false and dangerous comfort, where the long-standing level of effort becomes accepted as "good enough for government work." This may be simply because that is just the way the government has been doing, and does, business at that particular agency or office for years.

In the field of law enforcement and intelligence, however, and particularly in these days where we face an amorphous yet real and persistent threat from people waiting precisely for someone to fall asleep at the wheel, this subtle acceptance of below-the-line performance clashes directly with the heightened ethical bar that applies to those entrusted with public safety. These practices could reach the moral equivalent of "ethical negligence" and may prevent agencies from achieving desired, if not necessary, performance results.

With its university law school partner, CSM will identify the most serious of any such practices in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, explore and explain their ethical dimension, and recommend systemic and individual changes that serve to improve performance. This project conforms with on-going efforts by the CIA, FBI, DHS and other agencies to be more effective and more ethical, which remain a continuing focus of the Administration, Congress, and the American public.