Freeh Rejects an Outside Review of FBI : Law enforcement: The director says agency can police itself. Allegations against five senior officials over 1992 siege couldn’t be ‘more serious,’ he says.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, saying that he does not doubt the FBI’s ability to police itself, Wednesday rejected any suggestion that bureau officials’ conduct be examined by a review process outside the Justice Department, as has been done at some big-city police departments.

At the same time, Freeh said, he could not think of allegations “more serious” than those against the five senior FBI officials he recently suspended because of accusations that they did not accurately disclose what took place in a 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Ida. A white separatist’s wife was killed during the siege by an FBI sniper in what Freeh has described as a “tragic accident.”

If the allegations prove to be true, Freeh said, “I can’t think of anything more serious and I would be very concerned about undermining the public confidence in the FBI.”

Freeh, in a telephone interview, voiced no alarm at a new poll showing that public confidence in the FBI had plummeted in the last three months, possibly tied to congressional hearings on the FBI’s 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Tex., in which more than 80 people died.

The poll, by The Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press, found that only 16% of respondents said that they have a very favorable opinion of the FBI, compared to 34% who had a very favorable impression just three months ago in an ABC News-Washington Post poll. Unfavorable views of the bureau increased from 9% in May to 28% in the current survey. Times Mirror Co. is the owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper, broadcasting and publishing enterprises.

“The fact remains that in FBI cases going to court, where juries are sitting in judgment of FBI agents and their credibility, they’re in the 96 percentile conviction rate, which [shows] confidence in [the agency’s] credibility and reliability,” Freeh said. “I would look at much more of a variety of indicators than a question-and-answer poll.”

Freeh said that one lesson from a commission, which investigated New York City police corruption in 1972, “is that police have to police themselves. If you leave policing of a law enforcement organization to an outside entity exclusively . . . there is more of a tolerance by police commanders and officers to certain kinds of misconduct. What you have to do is ensure oversight, as we have in this case, with the oversight of the Department of Justice and the Office of Professional Responsibility, and ultimately the Congress,” Freeh said. “It’s essential that organizations have the responsibility to police themselves. If you take that away, you take away the accountability and responsibility for assuring professional conduct.”

Until the Ruby Ridge controversy, Freeh had enjoyed a reputation as an effective and popular law enforcement leader. Although Freeh was a federal judge when the Ruby Ridge incident occurred, officials he relied on and promoted after taking command of the FBI more than a year later, including former Deputy Director Larry A. Potts, now are subjects of a criminal inquiry by the U.S. attorney’s office here.

After removing Potts as his deputy, Freeh suspended him and four others with pay pending the outcome of the inquiry. On the recommendation of the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, their explanations of what took place at Ruby Ridge are being examined as possible false statements or perjury.

Based on “information and allegations that have now come to light,” Freeh said, his decision to vigorously support Potts for the FBI’s No. 2 position was “a mistake.”

While the criminal inquiry is being conducted, the Office of Professional Responsibility has placed on hold its broader inquiry into Ruby Ridge that extends beyond the five suspended officials.

Freeh said that he has given no consideration to resigning because of the Ruby Ridge controversy. He said that he regards as serious “any matter that affects the credibility or confidence people have either in the director or the FBI.”

“My view here is that it’s essential I acknowledge whatever mistakes were made, that we await the conclusions of the investigations and that I demonstrate the honesty and integrity of the 24,000 men and women who put their lives on the line every day . . . ,” Freeh said.

He said it also is essential that “firm, swift action be taken to correct and punish any wrongdoing and that it be done in light of day and without any concern of politics or adverse publicity. . . . I intend to do that when we get the facts and when I’m in a position to make those decisions.”

At the same time, Freeh said, as much as he would like to get the investigation completed and behind the FBI, “it’s much more important that we get the facts--and all the facts this time--rather than expedite anything.”