Mari Frank Interviews Frank Campbell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Highland Strategies, LLC

Frank A. S. Campbell is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Highland Strategies, LLC, a firm providing strategic consulting services relating to the use of information in connection with new technologies to enhance public safety and homeland security. Frank's 30-year professional career covers a broad range of public policy and legal experience, including 14 years in federal law enforcement and national security agencies and 14 years in private law practice. Frank served for nearly a decade (1999-2008) as a career Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Senior Counsel in the DOJ Office of Legal Policy. He began his government service in 1994 as an Assistant General Counsel for the FBI. While in government, Frank played a key role in developing policy initiatives and programs relating to background screening, identity management using biometrics, counterterrorism and information sharing, and the development and use of enhanced forensic technologies by law enforcement, including fingerprinting, DNA, and ballistics. Frank is regarded as the architect of the National Instant Check System (NICS), the background check system for gun buyers operated by the FBI under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. In the 12 years since it began, the NICS has processed more than 100 million background checks and prevented over a million transfers of firearms to persons prohibited by law from receiving a gun. Frank also spearheaded the Department's efforts to implement the NICS Improvement Act, a law passed in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy that aims to improve the completeness of automated information needed to deny guns to prohibited persons. Frank also provided legal and policy guidance on the security, privacy, and dissemination of information in the FBI's national criminal history record system. He authored the June 2006 Attorney General's Report on Criminal History Background Checks. The report recommends to Congress changes in the law to make FBI criminal history data more broadly available to private sector employers and in a way that harmonizes with the privacy and fair information practice requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and applicable equal employment opportunity laws and regulations. The report also made recommendations for improving the completeness of records in the national criminal history system. Frank testified on the report's recommendations as the DOJ witness at a congressional hearing on the need for efficiency and accuracy in background checks. Frank led the effort to develop the Attorney General's implementation guidelines for the information sharing provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, including guidelines for the sharing with the intelligence community and homeland security officials of foreign intelligence acquired in the course of criminal investigations. Frank authored the July 2008 proposed revision of the DOJ privacy and civil liberty guidelines and regulations governing federally-funded state criminal intelligence systems to bring them in line with the new, post-9/11 information sharing environment and investigative policies aimed at preventing terrorism. Frank assisted in efforts to define government-wide approaches to using biometrics to enhance identification in law enforcement and national security applications, including the joint National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directives (NSPD-59/HSPD-24) titled, "Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security." Frank worked on legislation, regulations, and grant initiatives supporting the further development and expansion of the FBI Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), including the December 2008 DOJ rule requiring DNA-sample collection and biological evidence preservation in federal jurisdiction. As an Assistant General Counsel for the FBI, Frank provided legal advice and counsel to the FBI Director and Senior Executives on issues concerning the administration of the FBI. His portfolio included criminal justice information management, Privacy Act issues, personnel and ethics issues, and response to issues raised by DOJ Inspector General, including reforms to policies and procedures governing the FBI Laboratory Division. His special responsibilities included representing FBI witnesses before the House committee investigating Whitewater, Travelgate, and Filegate. Frank received his B.A. from Lafayette College in 1977 and his law degree from the George Washington University in 1980. Frank and his wife Lisa have three children and live in the District of Columbia. www.highlandstrategies.com