Freeh Outlines FBI Streamlining; 2 Top Posts Cut

WASHINGTON — Six weeks after becoming FBI director, Louis J. Freeh on Tuesday announced a reorganization that eliminates two associate deputy directors and four dozen other management posts.

Freeh announced that he was abolishing the posts of Weldon Kennedy, associate deputy director for administration, and W. Douglas Gow, the associate deputy director for investigations.

“The changes are not based on lack of confidence in those holding these positions,” Freeh said in a statement. “All have given many years of devoted service to the FBI and will be offered other posts in the bureau. No one will be discharged.”

Information on new job assignments may be revealed at a news conference scheduled for today, when Freeh is expected to announce wholesale changes, particularly at the level of assistant director. One FBI official said he expected about 50% of those assignments to change.

Under the reorganization, the assistant directors who head individual divisions and the New York City field office will report directly to Freeh and Deputy Director Floyd I. Clarke.

In addition, a new assistant directorship will be created for the head of the Washington Metropolitan field office, in recognition of that office’s importance in anti-crime and foreign counterintelligence work. Most field offices are led by a special agent.

Meanwhile, the bureau will eliminate all of the assistant section chief positions and the special assistant posts that are below the deputy director’s office, as well as the No. 2 job in the New York City field office.

“The speed of decision-making will be significantly improved when assistant directors report directly to me and Floyd Clarke,” Freeh said in his statement.

Freeh added that the changes would improve productivity and save money. He is conducting two other studies that could lead to additional changes: transferring agents from headquarters to the field for anti-crime work and letting individual field offices undertake their own reorganizations.