The willingness of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to flail without information considered essential to a professional law enforcement system is singled out for explicit criticism by the U.S. Commerce Department's Inspector General in the report, issued last week.

"It seems to us," the investigation report stated, "that with an asset forfeiture fund with a balance of $8.4 million, NOAA has more than sufficient resources to develop and implement the data systems necessary to keep track of the performance of its enforcement group."

In the absence of useful data, the IG impelled research revealing troubling anomalies.

For example, fines in the Northeast region — cited repeatedly as the most extreme example of law enforcement operating outside higher supervision — were 250 percent greater than in the next highest region, and 500 percent more than in any of the other four regions.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.