Chapter[ XI. Recommendations ]
Section[ A. 2. The Commissioner’s Office Should More Effectively Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies ]
2. The Commissioner’s Office Should More Effectively Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies
No matter how skilled, the Commissioner’s Office’s investigators face significant
disadvantages in investigating illegal performance enhancing substance use compared to law
enforcement officials. Law enforcement officials, of course, have a broad array of investigatory
powers, including search warrants and subpoena power.
Recently, law enforcement agencies have become increasingly flexible and
creative in sharing with professional sports organizations information gathered during
investigations. This practice makes sense because law enforcement agencies typically focus
their efforts in illegal drug investigations on prosecution of the manufacturers, importers, and
distributors, not on the athletes who are the end users. During these investigations, however, law
enforcement agencies often accumulate evidence of use by individuals.
This is what happened in the prosecution of Kirk Radomski by the United States
Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. As described in this report, the
Radomski investigation yielded information regarding performance enhancing substance use by
major league players, much of it corroborated by documentary or other evidence.
The appointment of an senior executive in charge of investigations, with an
impeccable law enforcement reputation and the resources and authority needed to perform
effectively the duties of that office, will be an important first step to improving relations with law
enforcement agencies. One law enforcement official advised us in frustration that there is no
clearly designated person in the Commissioner’s Office to call when law enforcement does have
information. The senior executive in charge of investigations would be that person.
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Improved relations with law enforcement agencies and customs officials may also
serve as a deterrent to substance use by players. The Radomski case, the Signature Pharmacy
investigation, and other performance enhancing substance investigations, for example, may have
implications beyond the individual players identified in those cases. If nothing else, they serve
as a warning to all players that no one is protected from being identified by his supplier. And
suppliers may be more wary of supplying professional athletes if they know that sports
organizations are aggressively seeking to identify and facilitate the prosecution of those who
supply illegal substances to athletes.
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