The department has made abalone the top enforcement priority of its Wildlife Protection division.

Immigration and Naturalization says simply that the family is not an "enforcement priority."

The immigration service's "enforcement priorities remain the same under the new law," the statement also said.

Mr. Mueller said he no longer wanted to see field offices establish their own distinct law enforcement priorities.

Terrorism had not even appeared on a list of enforcement priorities the new attorney general, Mr. Ashcroft, sent to top aides.

In 2003, Seattle passed an initiative that made adult personal use marijuana offenses the city's lowest law enforcement priority.

Several of these jurisdictions have made arrests for cannabis a low enforcement priority.

Similarly, traffic authorities have begun discussions with community boards to hear their enforcement priorities, partly in the hope of reducing hostility to agents.

"What I'd like to see the video do is bump up the enforcement priority."

Securities regulators in Britain have made insider trading, especially involving hedge funds, an enforcement priority recently.