| Acrospeak
By Robert L. Guthrie, retired Supervisory Special Agent, Executive Director of the Association of Former Customs Special Agents, Inc. |
Boy, do we live in a society of acronyms! The modern practice of using initials instead of words to identify institutions and government entities is getting not just confusing, it's getting downright annoying. Do you know the federal government alone uses more than 5,000 acronyms - and that doesn't even include those used by the Postal Service!The other day I was reading several back issues of U.S. Customs Today, and I discovered no less than 45 acronyms in five issues. It made me reflect on my days as an inspector and a special agent. We used them, too, but we didn't use much more than ten of them, if that: CAC (Customs Agent in Charge), CIE (Customs Information Exchange), I&C (Inspection and Control), OI (Office of Investigations), DD (District Director), POE (port of Entry, and maybe a few others. Nowadays it seems every office and every position in Customs is identified by an acronym instead of a real word. So I tried to imagine what it would be like to tell a story in acrobabble about a new employee's first experience in the Customs Service. This is how it would probably read:Having just graduated from an East Coast university with a degree in criminal justice, and having decided long ago, at the age of 16, that I wanted to dedicate my life to law enforcement, I started checking federal agencies for career opportunities. I started with DEA, but decided I did not want to spend my life enforcing only narcotics laws; I wanted something with more variety, something that would offer tangible rewards. So I went to the local SAIC office, where I learned about opportunities in EEO, OI, IA, OST, AEO, CI, and MEO, among others. They told me that I would go to FLETC to learn about ICEP, CMCs, FEHB, TSP, SES, and NIPS. Upon graduating from FLETC, I was assigned to a local RAIC and given the use of a GOV. If I used my POV, USCS would reimburse me for mileage. On one occasion, the CET called me to the POE because it had received information from CAPERS, relayed by CMD SECTOR. It seems that ICAT had targeted a shipment of steel and found Freon hidden inside. Subsequent contact with OIA, OR&R, and OFO revealed the suspected country of origin, shipping, routing, and regulations governing the ban on importing this particular substance. ITDS and ACE provided statistical data. The CMC pulled all previous entry data on that company's shipments while the TRC and the BITR provided the technical data needed for possible court action against the violators. After successful prosecution of the violators, the ICAT and I were recipients under the NAP, and I was reassigned to IA, where they told me to check into the VMS, the FPMB, and the NCAP. |
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