Shirking by the ATF Hurts Justice Department

Often there are times when people’s different intentions do not align and there are undesired circumstances as a result. This article on the Justice Department’s disagreement over gun-trafficking probes shows how when the department’s desires do not align with the individuals within it how there can be consequences. The article discusses how parts of the Justice Department like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives engaged in gun-trafficking probes that let suspects buy firearms. These missions like Fast and the Furious and Wide Receiver have led to thousands of guns being unaccounted for which has led to unknown amounts of violence. The Bureau said it took these risky actions in order to try and help the overall image of the Justice Department. However, the United States Attorney’s Office in Arizona has said that these practices have not been condoned by their institution. Although, the Justice Department and the ATF have the same end goal, the way they achieved these goals and was different and there was inefficiency as a result. Grier describes this problem as the principal-agent problem where the agent, the Bureau, is charged with acting on behalf of the principle who is the party that gains and loses from the activities in question, the Justice Department. The disconnect that can happen between the principal and the agent occurs because although both parties are the utility maximizers, they do not have the same utility function. The disconnect that is happening in this scenario is called shirking because the ATF was trying to maximize its own utility, rather than taking into account how the risky behavior would affect the utility of the Justice Department. The oversight on behalf of the ATF that has consequences for the principal, the Justice Department, could be fixed by assessing Kalt and Zupan’s remedies for shirking. If the Justice Department had done a better job of monitoring the ATF, defining their responsibilities, and assessing their performance than these reckless missions would likely not have been undertaken and there would not be firearms unaccounted for. Kalt and Zupan would argue that the Justice Department needs to curb the shirking tendencies of their constituents in order to prevent inefficiencies like unaccounted firearms in the future.