Warning on Use of Lead Charge

The Justice Department is now withholding lead charge information from the records of agency referrals which have not yet been acted upon, as well as some fugitive cases. TRAC is currently in court challenging this practice.

This withholding only affects the lead charge information from FY 1999 onward. As a result, only incomplete data about referrals made according to lead charge are available for these recent years. Any extract based upon selecting lead charge will result in serious undercounts for these years.

For those matters that have been disposed of -- declined, prosecuted, dismissed, etc -- complete information about the lead charge has been released. Full information about new referrals, apart from lead charge, also is available when examined according to the agency making them or by Justice Department program category. (But see latest withholding now of program category.)


Copyright 2006, TRAC Reports, Inc.