Commerce Department shutters security unit for improper criminal probes, data collection, report

The Commerce Department announced Friday it will eliminate a security unit found to have improperly started criminal investigations and collected information on hundreds of its employees and citizens, according to a news report.

The decision follows a nearly five-month internal review by top Commerce lawyers. They concluded the agency's Investigations and Threat Management Service, did not have "adequate legal authority" to pursue criminal probes, as it had been doing for 15 years, The Washington Post reports.