THE REGULATORS
**************
A Plumber Assignment


	TRAFFIC AGENCY TRIES TO STOP THE FLOW OF INTERNAL LEAKS
				by Cindy Skrzycki
				Washington Post Writer June 14, 1996

	Don't talk about top-secret stuff in elevators and hallways.  Keep
sensitive documents face down on your desk.  Lock up nonpublic documents 
at the end of the day.  Don't use interoffice mail for nonpublic 
information.  And always hand-deliver important documents.  Keep it on a 
need-to-know basis.
	It may not be Watergate, but a "plumbers unit" has sprung up at 
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, ferreting out leakers 
and tightening security procedures.  Spearheaded by the NHTSA's general 
counsel, its job was to get NHTSA employees and outside contractors not 
to hide things in plain sight and comply with federal laws on disclosure 
of nonpublic information.
	What spurred the effort was a highly embarrassing leak to an auto
safety activist, and then to then to the media, of a NHTSA crash test 
videotape showing a Chrysler Corp. minivan being struck and dummies 
ejecting from a rear hatch after the latch failed.
	The agency had planned to release the tape itself when it called 
a press conference for Oct. 25, 1995, to close the investigation into the
defective latches, but it was preempted when the national networks began 
airing the tape.
	Claiming it has never found the leaker, the agency decided not to 
let it happen again.  It convened a six-person Security of Non-Public 
Information Task Force, which scurried about investigating, questioning 
and reviewing the agency's disclosure policies (or lack thereof).
	Last March it came up with a 40-page report that itself was highly
sanitized.  It included scetions on what are violations and what happens 
to violators.  It "redacted" in the public version of the report sections 
involving computer security, physical security, communications with the 
media, and punishing offenders---to name a few.
	Auto safety activists said the effort made some NHTSA employees 
uncomfortable and worried about their jobs.  NHTSA officials said it was 
necessary because the agency is in possession of confidential information 
from manufacturers that must be held closely.
	"No one wanted to create the atmosphere of an interrogation or a 
withc hunt," said Philip Recht, NHTSA's deputy administrator.  "It 
(leaking the tape) was a serious breach of confidentiality.  It alarmed 
people that perhaps we aren't begin as careful as we need to be.  You'd be
surprised how much business is discussed in elevators."


(P.S. Some of the ABS disclosure resulted after CC internal documents were
found...e.g. leaked.  Without such info, the case would be much weaker.)