SECURITY RECORDS AND COMMUNICATION DIVISION BRIEFING-- 8 DECEMBER 1966

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00780R001200200001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 19, 2002
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 14, 1966
• Content Type: MFR

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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Security Records and Communication Division Briefing--
8 December 1966
2? Chief of the Security Records and Communica-
tion Division, who gave the briefing outlined the organizational structure of
his Division and then detailed its activities unit by unit. SR&CD, he noted
is the largest of the headquarters components in Security with a T/O of~
vn addition to serving as the "registry" for the Office of Security, it has a
number of related responsibilities including records management which until
recently came under the O/S Executive Officer.
3. Tracing the flow of security clearance requests on a chart which he
displayed, escribed the step-by-step processes involved in.
handling the 45, 000-46, 000 requests SR&CD receives a year. About three
days are required in each case, he said, to log the request, assign a case
number (which for persons later hired becomes the employee number), search
the index, write an analysis, and forward the case through the Personnel
Security Division to the Investigations Division. Each element in the Division
was then discussed:
a. Communications
This is the O/S registry, responsible for all incoming
and outgoing communications including security requests. A dis-
tinguishing feature of the unit is its secure teletype link (using the
b , Index
O/5 has about 1, 650, 000 names in its security index now
filed alphabetically. As each security request comes in, the members
of this Section check it against the index and, when necessary, cross
reference it to the more than 500, 000 files (which are maintained in
numerical order by file number). About 2, 000 names are checked
each day. The Index ~s also responsible for making name
searches for other agencies (totaling about 70, 000 a year),
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c . Processing
This is a group largely of typists who are engaged in creating
index cards, setting up file numbers, and preparing biographic mats
for covert field investigations (since PHS's are not available in covert
cases, a standard format is needed for investigative purposes).
d. Files
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The members of this unit are responsible for maintaining and
updating the more than 500, 000 security files on hand.
e . Case Analysis
New requests for clearance are received here, summaries pre-
pared, and name checks made . About 25, 000 RID checks are done each
year on covert cases and selected staff cases. This is the unit that
handles requests for name checks from outside agencies. It is also
the unit responsible for top secret control in the Office of Security.
25X1
f. Key Punch
As the name implies, this is a clerical unit heavily involved in
the automation of the security index and other related files.
4. Automation
25X1 reviewed in some detail the status of O/S' project to automate
the securit index which began, he said, in 1963 with a systems study by Bob
25X1 Following this, and using a group of contract employees,
spen t e period from July 1964 to May 1966 converting its index cards
to magnetic tape. Then from May to October 1966 the master file was updated.
At the end of October the system "went live."
Staff cases are still being processed manually, noted but
the computer is handling all routine searches, outside-agency checks, and
miscellaneous cases. Requests for machine checks are put on punch cards,
hatched at the end of each day, and taken to OCS where they are processed
automatically into tape and run through the computer overnight. During
November 18, 000 machine searches were made, compared with 33, 000 manual
searches. This ratio is rapidly reversing and by the end of March all normal
searches, including those for staff cases, are expected to be made by machine.
Ultimately, the plan is to provide random access to the machine from remote
points so that a number of O/S components can obtain checks at any hour of the
day.
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According to CODIB and the Knox Panel have both examined
the O/S system with a view to pushing for the automation of indices in other
security agencies and tyirig_them together in some fashion. DOD is already
moving in this direction under a SecDef order calling for the Services to merge
their files at one location. By 1 November 20 million index cards were in place
at Fort Holabird. The FBI, however, Ana.s no plans to automate its 55 million
index cards; so any inter-agency telecommunications system for name checks
will be severely inhibited until the FBI can be brought into the network. CIA
has indicated willingness to cooperate in such a venture provided adequate
controls are present to govern access to its index. Meanwhile, the O/S index
is fully compatible with that of DD/P.
5. Workload Data
uveiled an impressive array of workload statistics for
Calendar years 1965 and 1966. His chart showed, for example, that in CY 1965
a total of 49, 429 cases were processed, 578, 388 names searched through the
index, 69, 935 outside-agency name checks completed, and 113, 225 cards added
to the index (which now consists of 1, 712, 000 separate cards). To avoid inunda-
tion by this growing mass of files, the records retirement program is picking
up steam, he said; more than 137, 000 files have already been shifted to the
Records Center and 1967 should add a record number to that total.
6. Problems
Two problems in SR&CD were mentioned--a slight restructuring of the
T/O (and reclassification of a few positions), and the high turnover rate in the
Division. xpects the T/O exercise to be completed in the next
several weeks . But he is not sanguine about a drop in the turnover rate since
employees are clericals. The Key Punch Branch present a particu-
larly tough problem. New recruits with experience are almost nonexistent for
this unit so it must maintain a constant training program for employees whose
average tenure is extremely short. Not all losses to SR&CD are losses to the
Agency, however; about two-thirds of those who leave the Division transfer to
other Agency components. Even so, ound little to be pleased about
>n the 40 losses that have occurred so far this year. ,
Distribution:
Orig - DD/S Subject
1 - DD/S Chrono
As ecu ve icer tot e
Deputy Director for Support
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