Assistant Commissioner Matthew Klein
The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is responsible for ensuring compliance with Agency-wide programs and policies relating to corruption, investigating criminal and serious misconduct or mismanagement allegations, and executing CBP’s internal security and integrity awareness programs. To this end, OPR pre-screens job applicants, conducts background investigations and polygraph examinations, identifies suspicious activity through data analysis, investigates criminal or serious misconduct allegations, ensures employees maintain the highest standards of integrity and professionalism throughout their careers, and takes measures to protect CBP employees, facilities, and sensitive information from security threats.
Our Vision for the future is clear: Safeguard the integrity and security of CBP and strengthen public trust and confidence.
Our Mission is distinguished: With professionalism, accountability, and transparency, OPR serves as the premier organization to identify, mitigate, and combat threats and vulnerabilities faced by CBP’s community and operations.
At the highest level, OPR is charged with ensuring CBP operations, personnel, and facilities are secure and trustworthy.
The Office of Professional Responsibility Strategy 2024-2028 focuses on four goal areas to meet the mission accomplish the vision:
- People is focused on attracting, developing, and maintaining a highly motivated workforce.
- Charge calls on OPR to identify, mitigate and combat threats to CBP’s integrity and security.
- Culture is centered on strengthening CBP’s security and integrity culture.
- Message is focused on telling OPR’s story and deepening trust in CBP.
OPR Structure
The Mission Support Division (MSD) is responsible for enabling all OPR divisions to fulfill their assigned functions by ensuring they have appropriate resources and support. This includes oversight and execution of more than $200M in budgetary authority for personnel and operational costs, and efficient and effective management of OPR property, fleet, facilities, human resources, and hiring. Additionally, MSD serves as the OPR liaison with CBP Enterprise Services offices including Office of Facilities and Asset Management, Office of Acquisition, Office of Finance, and Office of Human Resources Management.
The Security Operations Directorate (SOD) is responsible for policy governance and program implementation of suitability and eligibility determination, polygraph examination administration, and identified security management programs for CBP leadership and personnel. SOD’s mission is supported by three divisions: Credibility Assessment Division, Personnel Security Division, and Security Management Division.
Credibility Assessment Division
The Credibility Assessment Division is responsible for conducting pre-employment polygraph exams for CBP job applicants and issue-specific polygraph exams from 26 offices and other satellite locations across the country. Administrating polygraph exams supports the hiring process, aids misconduct investigations, and mitigates insider threats. Polygraph examiners administer more than 16,000 polygraph examinations annually with over 500 referrals made per year to federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities due to the serious criminal or concerning admissions provided. Explore opportunities for a career in the Credibility Assessment Division.
Personnel Security Division
The Personnel Security Division is responsible for initiating, administering, and adjudicating background investigations, periodic reinvestigations, security clearances, employment suitability determinations, and continuous evaluation of CBP employees. CBP possesses delegated authority from the Office of Personnel Management to perform its own background investigations of applicants, employees, and contractors employed by or seeking employment with CBP. This Division’s employees also ensure compliance with required standards of background investigations conducted by contracted Investigative Service Providers. Explore opportunities for a career in the Personnel Security Division.
Security Management Division
The Security Management Division is responsible for providing oversight to a myriad of CBP security functions to identify and reduce risks, threats, and vulnerabilities for the security of CBP personnel and assets across the Nation and around the world. This Division’s personnel develop security policies and standards, coordinate activities, and conduct assessments for CBP physical, administrative, industrial, and operational security programs. These assessments equip CBP leadership with the necessary information to make risk-informed decisions regarding the use of CBP resources.
The Investigative Operations Directorate (IOD) leads the investigation, oversight, and proactive awareness and mitigation of workforce misconduct, critical incidents, and workforce-related threats in CBP. IOD utilizes innovative, integrated programs and capabilities to prevent, detect, and investigate allegations of serious misconduct, harassment, excessive force, assaults, corruption, Prison Rape Elimination Act claims, procurement fraud, cyber and forensic crimes as well as reviews critical incidents and detention standards. These core activities are rooted in OPR’s legacy Internal Affairs role but have evolved into an expanded function that includes the oversight and review of critical incidents where misconduct may not be suspected. IOD does this by conducting field investigations, ensuring proper resource allocation to fulfill operations, and by incorporating advanced data analytics, behavioral science, and trend analysis to proactively augment investigative efforts and raise awareness within OPR and CBP. IOD collaborates with key partners within CBP as well as federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies, and other community partners. Such partnerships embrace the importance of information sharing and investigative collaboration that strengthen OPR’s innovative approach to its mission. IOD’s mission is supported by four divisions: Field Investigations Division, Operations Division, Operations Support Division, and Threat Mitigation and Analysis Division.
Field Investigations Division
The Field Investigations Division is responsible for executing thorough, impartial, and timely investigations and fact-finding over a wide spectrum of activities and allegations involving criminal and serious administrative misconduct of CBP employees and contractors on and off- duty. Investigative matters range from bribery and conspiracy cases linked to drug and human smuggling operations, to claims of excessive force, domestic violence, and government information system misuse. Criminal investigators and support staff operate in over 25 field offices strategically located across the country where the threat of corruption and misconduct is most pervasive. Field Investigations also often collaborates with law enforcement partners and other state, local and/or tribal authorities, endeavoring to meet the threat of corruption and address misconduct undermining the safety and security of the CBP workforce and mission.
Operations Division
The Operations Division is responsible for providing subject matter expertise in the areas of critical incidents, use of force, death in custody reviews, procurement fraud, technical operations, confidential human source, and protective operations. Each of these elements is guided by a program manager who has the experience and expertise to provide needed guidance and support to IOD employees in the field who are conducting investigations and responding to critical incidents and deaths.
Operations Support Division
The Operations Support Division is a multi-disciplinary division responsible for a wide range of programs in support of, and related to IOD’s investigative, oversight, and awareness mission. Criminal investigators and personnel in a variety of professional series manage resources, workforce development and training, and investigative policy. They also conduct investigative sufficiency reviews, misconduct and corruption research and strategic trend analysis, integrity awareness and capacity building initiatives, administrative inquiries through the Fact Finder Program, organizational analysis, and the centralized intake and processing of allegations of misconduct in the Joint Intake Center. Operations Support Division produces the annual Report on Internal Investigations and Employee Accountability, Trust Betrayed, and the CBP Accountability and Transparency web page.
Threat Mitigation and Analysis Division
The Threat Mitigation and Analysis Division is responsible for identifying, researching, and analyzing data and trends to proactively identify potential corruption and unreported serious misconduct. This Division’s personnel research, exploit, and analyze complex data and information surrounding individuals and/or misconduct allegations using a variety of analytical tools and law enforcement resources. Analysis produced by this division also supports OPR’s critical incident response investigations as well as criminal and/or administrative investigations. Prevention and mitigation efforts may include analytical awareness initiatives, policy recommendations, investigative support, proactive investigative and trend analysis, investigative referrals, and investigative case initiation.