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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S MISSION CRITICAL

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of Justice announced today that 100 percent of its mission critical systems are fully Y2K compliant.

"Each and every one of the Department's 217 mission critical systems have cleared Y2K testing procedures, and have been deployed and implemented in offices across the country and around the world," Attorney General Janet Reno said.

The Department's preparations will ensure that there will be no breakdown in access to vital high-tech law enforcement systems such as the FBI's NCIC 2000, which provides direct, on-line access to nearly 39 million records to law enforcement agencies across the country. Other mission critical systems include the Bureau of Prisons's "Sentry" system which processes inmates through every phase of their incarceration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service's "Look Out" system which is used at entry ports around the country to help determine the admissibility of travelers into the U.S.

In addition, contingency plans are in place for all mission critical systems in Justice and each contingency plan has been verified and validated by an independent contractor. As further insurance against unanticipated problems when the Department begins normal operations on January 3, 2000, all essential functions of the Department's mission critical systems will be verified again on Saturday, January 1, 2000. Performing this vital step during the Y2K rollover weekend will ensure that any unforeseen problem will be promptly identified and corrected before normal business begins.

"I am confident that our systems will perform as intended and in the unlikely event that problems surface, they will be dealt with quickly and professionally, without any interruptions in our law enforcement efforts," said Assistant Attorney General for Administration, Stephen R. Colgate, the Department's Y2K Program Manager.

The Department's Y2K Command Center, which will be headed by Colgate, will begin operation at 6:00 p.m., Thursday December 30, 1999, at the FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) located in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, and will continue on a 24-hour basis through 4:00 p.m., January 4, 2000, or longer if required. Department officials, information technology professionals and Department contractors and vendors will be either on site or on call during the rollover period to ensure that any unforeseen problems will be promptly identified and corrected immediately.

In November, the Department reported that 99 percent of the Department's 217 mission critical systems were fully compliant, noting that only three mission critical systems -- office automation systems that provide basic word processing and administrative systems support in the FBI, DEA and the Tax Division -- were not yet fully compliant.

"Although these systems had cleared Y2K testing and validation procedures, the Department could not declare 100 percent compliance until the last system had been fully deployed to every field office around the country and the world, " said Colgate. "Now that these systems have been deployed and implemented throughout the Department's domestic and foreign locations, we have reached our goal of 100 percent compliance by December, 1999."

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