Mission, priorities and budget
Mission
The mission of the FBI is:Protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States
Priorities
Currently, the FBI's top priorities are: * Protect the United States from terrorist attacks * Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations, espionage, and cyber operations *Combat significant cyber criminal activity * Combat public corruption at all levels * Protect civil rights * Combat transnational criminal enterprises * Combat major white-collar crime * Combat significant violent crimeBudget
In the fiscal year 2019, the Bureau's total budget was approximately $9.6 billion. In the Authorization and Budget Request to Congress for fiscal year 2021, the FBI asked for $9,800,724,000. Of that money, $9,748,829,000 would be used for Salaries and Expenses (S&E) and $51,895,000 for Construction. The S&E program saw an increase of $199,673,000.History
Background
In 1896, the National Bureau of Criminal Identification was founded, which provided agencies across the country with information to identify known criminals. The 1901 assassination of President William McKinley created a perception that the United States was under threat from anarchists. The Departments of Justice and Labor had been keeping records on anarchists for years, but President Theodore Roosevelt wanted more power to monitor them. The Justice Department had been tasked with the regulation of interstate commerce since 1887, though it lacked the staff to do so. It had made little effort to relieve its staff shortage until the Oregon land fraud scandal at the turn of the 20th century. President Roosevelt instructed Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to organize an autonomous investigative service that would report only to the Attorney General. Bonaparte reached out to other agencies, including theCreation of BOI
The Bureau of Investigation (BOI) was created on July 26, 1908. Attorney General Bonaparte, using Department of Justice expense funds, hired thirty-four people, including some veterans of the Secret Service, to work for a new investigative agency. Its first "chief" (the title is now "director") was Stanley Finch. Bonaparte notified the Congress of these actions in December 1908. The bureau's first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution in preparation for enforcing the "White Slave Traffic Act" or Mann Act, passed on June 25, 1910. In 1932, the bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation.Creation of FBI
The following year, 1933, the BOI was linked to theJ. Edgar Hoover as FBI director
National security
Beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the 1970s, the bureau investigated cases of espionage against the United States and its allies. Eight Nazi agents who had planned sabotage operations against American targets were arrested, and six were executed ('' Ex parte Quirin'') under their sentences. Also during this time, a joint US/UK code-breaking effort called "The Venona Project"—with which the FBI was heavily involved—broke Soviet diplomatic and intelligence communications codes, allowing the US and British governments to read Soviet communications. This effort confirmed the existence of Americans working in the United States for Soviet intelligence. Hoover was administering this project, but he failed to notify the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of it until 1952. Another notable case was the arrest of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in 1957. The discovery of Soviet spies operating in the US motivated Hoover to pursue his longstanding concern with the threat he perceived from theJapanese American internment
In 1939, the Bureau began compiling a custodial detention list with the names of those who would be taken into custody in the event of war with Axis nations. The majority of the names on the list belonged to Issei community leaders, as the FBI investigation built on an existingSex deviates program
According to Douglas M. Charles, the FBI's "sex deviates" program began on April 10, 1950, when J. Edgar Hoover forwarded to the White House, to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and to branches of the armed services a list of 393 alleged federal employees who had allegedly been arrested in Washington, D.C., since 1947, on charges of "sexual irregularities". On June 20, 1951, Hoover expanded the program by issuing a memo establishing a "uniform policy for the handling of the increasing number of reports and allegations concerning present and past employees of the United States Government who assertedly icare sex deviates." The program was expanded to include non-government jobs. According to Athan Theoharis, "In 1951 he ooverhad unilaterally instituted a Sex Deviates program to purge alleged homosexuals from any position in the federal government, from the lowliest clerk to the more powerful position of White house aide." On May 27, 1953, Executive Order 10450 went into effect. The program was expanded further by this executive order by making all federal employment of homosexuals illegal. On July 8, 1953, the FBI forwarded to the U.S. Civil Service Commission information from the sex deviates program. In 1977–1978, 300,000 pages, collected between 1930 and the mid-1970s, in the sex deviates program were destroyed by FBI officials.Civil rights movement
During the 1950s and 1960s, FBI officials became increasingly concerned about the influence of civil rights leaders, whom they believed either had communist ties or were unduly influenced by communists or " fellow travelers". In 1956, for example, Hoover sent an open letter denouncing Dr. T. R. M. Howard, a civil rights leader, surgeon, and wealthy entrepreneur in Mississippi who had criticized FBI inaction in solving recent murders of George W. Lee, Emmett Till, and other blacks in the South. The FBI carried out controversial domestic surveillance in an operation it called theKennedy's assassination
When President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed, the jurisdiction fell to the local police departments until President Lyndon B. Johnson directed the FBI to take over the investigation. To ensure clarity about the responsibility for investigation of homicides of federal officials, the Congress passed a law that included investigations of such deaths of federal officials, especially by homicide, within FBI jurisdiction. This new law was passed in 1965.Organized crime
In response to organized crime, on August 25, 1953, the FBI created the Top Hoodlum Program. The national office directed field offices to gather information on mobsters in their territories and to report it regularly to Washington for a centralized collection of intelligence on racketeers. After the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act, took effect, the FBI began investigating the former Prohibition-organized groups, which had become fronts for crime in major cities and small towns. All of the FBI work was done undercover and from within these organizations, using the provisions provided in the RICO Act. Gradually the agency dismantled many of the groups. Although Hoover initially denied the existence of a National Crime Syndicate in the United States, the Bureau later conducted operations against known organized crime syndicates and families, including those headed bySpecial FBI teams
In 1982, the FBI formed an elite unit to help with problems that might arise at the 1984 Summer Olympics to be held in Los Angeles, particularly terrorism and major-crime. This was a result of the 1972 Summer Olympics inNotable efforts in the 1990s
On May 1, 1992, FBI SWAT and HRT personnel in Los Angeles County, California aided local officials in securing peace within the area during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. HRT operators, for instance, spent 10 days conducting vehicle-mounted patrols throughout Los Angeles, before returning to Virginia. Between 1993 and 1996, the FBI increased its counter-terrorism role following the first 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the arrest of the Unabomber in 1996. Technological innovation and the skills of FBI Laboratory analysts helped ensure that the three cases were successfully prosecuted. However, Justice Department investigations into the FBI's roles in the Ruby Ridge andSeptember 11 attacks
During the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, FBI agent Leonard W. Hatton Jr. was killed during the rescue effort while helping the rescue personnel evacuate the occupants of the South Tower, and he stayed when it collapsed. Within months after the attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller, who had been sworn in a week before the attacks, called for a re-engineering of FBI structure and operations. He made countering every federal crime a top priority, including the prevention of terrorism, countering foreign intelligence operations, addressing cybersecurity threats, other high-tech crimes, protecting civil rights, combating public corruption, organized crime, white-collar crime, and major acts of violent crime. In February 2001, Robert Hanssen was caught selling information to the Russian government. It was later learned that Hanssen, who had reached a high position within the FBI, had been selling intelligence since as early as 1979. He pleaded guilty to espionage and received a life sentence in 2002, but the incident led many to question the security practices employed by the FBI. There was also a claim that Hanssen might have contributed information that led to the September 11, 2001, attacks. The 9/11 Commission's final report on July 22, 2004, stated that the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were both partially to blame for not pursuing intelligence reports that could have prevented the September 11 attacks. In its most damning assessment, the report concluded that the country had "not been well served" by either agency and listed numerous recommendations for changes within the FBI. While the FBI did accede to most of the recommendations, including oversight by the new Director of National Intelligence, some former members of the 9/11 Commission publicly criticized the FBI in October 2005, claiming it was resisting any meaningful changes. On July 8, 2007, '' The Washington Post'' published excerpts from UCLA Professor Amy Zegart's book ''Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11''. The ''Post'' reported, from Zegart's book, that government documents showed that both the CIA and the FBI had missed 23 potential chances to disrupt the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The primary reasons for the failures included: agency cultures resistant to change and new ideas; inappropriate incentives for promotion; and a lack of cooperation between the FBI, CIA, and the rest of the United States Intelligence Community. The book blamed the FBI's decentralized structure, which prevented effective communication and cooperation among different FBI offices. The book suggested that the FBI had not evolved into an effective counter-terrorism or counter-intelligence agency, due in large part to deeply ingrained agency cultural resistance to change. For example, FBI personnel practices continued to treat all staff other than special agents as support staff, classifying intelligence analysts alongside the FBI's auto mechanics and janitors.Faulty bullet analysis
For over 40 years, the FBI crime lab in Quantico had believed that lead alloys used in bullets had unique chemical signatures. It was analyzing the bullets with the goal of matching them chemically, not only to a single batch of ammunition coming out of a factory, but also to a single box of bullets. The National Academy of Sciences conducted an 18-month independent review of comparative bullet-lead analysis. In 2003, its National Research Council published a report whose conclusions called into question 30 years of FBI testimony. It found the analytic model used by the FBI for interpreting results was deeply flawed, and the conclusion, that bullet fragments could be matched to a box of ammunition, was so overstated that it was misleading under the rules of evidence. One year later, the FBI decided to stop conducting bullet lead analyses. After a '' 60 Minutes''/'' The Washington Post'' investigation in November 2007, two years later, the Bureau agreed to identify, review, and release all pertinent cases, and notify prosecutors about cases in which faulty testimony was given.Technology
In 2012, the FBI formed the National Domestic Communications Assistance Center to develop technology for assisting law enforcement with technical knowledge regarding communication services, technologies, and electronic surveillance.Organization
Organizational structure
The FBI is organized into functional branches and the Office of the Director, which contains most administrative offices. An executive assistant director manages each branch. Each branch is then divided into offices and divisions, each headed by an assistant director. The various divisions are further divided into sub-branches, led by deputy assistant directors. Within these sub-branches, there are various sections headed by section chiefs. Section chiefs are ranked analogous to special agents in charge. Four of the branches report to the deputy director while two report to the associate director. The main branches of the FBI are: * FBI Intelligence Branch **Executive Assistant Director: Stephen Laycock * FBI National Security Branch **Executive Assistant Director: John Brown * FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch **Executive Assistant Director: Terry Wade * FBI Science and Technology Branch **Executive Assistant Director: Darrin E. Jones * FBI Information and Technology Branch **Executive Assistant Director: Michael Gavin (Acting) * FBI Human Resources Branch **Executive Assistant Director: Jeffrey S. Sallet Each branch focuses on different tasks, and some focus on more than one. Here are some of the tasks that different branches are in charge of:FBI Headquarters Washington D.C.
National Security Branch (NSB) * Counterintelligence Division (CD) * Counterterrorism Division (CTD) * Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD) * High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) * Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) Intelligence Branch (IB) * Directorate of Intelligence (DI) * Office of Partner Engagement (OPE) * Office of Private Sector FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch (CCRSB) * Criminal Investigation Division (CID) * Cyber Division (CyD) * Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) * International Operation Division (IOD) * Victim Services Division Science and Technology Branch (STB) * Operational Technology Division (OTD) * Laboratory Division (LD) * Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIA) DivisionOther Headquarter Offices
Information and Technology Branch (ITB) * IT Enterprise Services Division (ITESD) * IT Applications and Data Division (ITADD) * IT Infrastructure Division (ITID) * IT Management Division * IT Engineering Division * IT Services Division Human Resources Branch (HRB) * Training Division (TD) * Human Resources Division (HRD) * Security Division (SecD) Administrative and financial management support * Facilities and Logistics Services Division (FLSD) * Finance Division (FD) * Records Management Division (RMD) * Resource Planning Office (RPO) * Inspection Division (InSD)Office of the Director
The Office of the Director serves as the central administrative organ of the FBI. The office provides staff support functions (such as finance and facilities management) to the five function branches and the various field divisions. The office is managed by the FBI associate director, who also oversees the operations of both the Information and Technology and Human Resources Branches. Senior staff * Deputy director * Associate deputy director * Chief of staff Office of the Director * Finance and Facilities Division * Information Management Division * Insider Threat Office * Inspection Division * Office of the Chief Information Officer * Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA) * Office of Diversity and Inclusion * Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs (OEEOA) * Office of the General Counsel (OGC) * Office of Integrity and Compliance (OIC) * Office of Internal Auditing *Rank structure
The following is a listing of the rank structure found within the FBI (in ascending order): * Field agents ** New agent trainee ** Special agent ** Senior special agent ** Supervisory special agent ** Assistant special agent-in-charge (ASAC) ** Special agent-in-charge (SAC) * FBI management ** Deputy assistant director ** Assistant director ** Associate executive assistant director ** Executive assistant director ** Associate deputy director ** Deputy chief of staff ** Chief of staff and special counsel to the director ** Deputy director ** DirectorLegal authority
The FBI's mandate is established in Title 28 of the United States Code (U.S. Code), Section 533, which authorizes the Attorney General to "appoint officials to detect and prosecute crimes against the United States." Other federal statutes give the FBI the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes. The FBI's chief tool against organized crime is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The FBI is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing compliance of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating violations of the act in addition to prosecuting such violations with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI also shares concurrent jurisdiction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The USA PATRIOT Act increased the powers allotted to the FBI, especially in wiretapping and monitoring of Internet activity. One of the most controversial provisions of the act is the so-called '' sneak and peek'' provision, granting the FBI powers to search a house while the residents are away, and not requiring them to notify the residents for several weeks afterward. Under the PATRIOT Act's provisions, the FBI also resumed inquiring into the library records of those who are suspected of terrorism (something it had supposedly not done since the 1970s). In the early 1980s, Senate hearings were held to examine FBI undercover operations in the wake of the Abscam controversy, which had allegations of entrapment of elected officials. As a result, in the following years a number of guidelines were issued to constrain FBI activities. A March 2007 report by the inspector general of the Justice Department described the FBI's "widespread and serious misuse" of national security letters, a form of administrative subpoena used to demand records and data pertaining to individuals. The report said that between 2003 and 2005, the FBI had issued more than 140,000 national security letters, many involving people with no obvious connections to terrorism. Information obtained through an FBI investigation is presented to the appropriate United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney or Department of Justice official, who decides if prosecution or other action is warranted. The FBI often works in conjunction with other federal agencies, including the United States Coast Guard, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in seaport and airport security, and the National Transportation Safety Board in investigating Aviation accidents and incidents, airplane crashes and other critical incidents. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has nearly the same amount of investigative manpower as the FBI and investigates the largest range of crimes. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, then–Attorney General Ashcroft assigned the FBI as the designated lead organization in terrorism investigations after the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. HSI and the FBI are both integral members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.Indian reservations
The federal government has the primary responsibility for investigating and prosecuting serious crime on Indian reservations. The FBI does not specifically list crimes in Native American land as one of its priorities. Often serious crimes have been either poorly investigated or prosecution has been declined. Tribal courts can impose sentences of up to three years, under certain restrictions.Infrastructure
The FBI is headquartered at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., with 56 field offices in major cities across the United States. The FBI also maintains over 400 resident agencies across the United States, as well as over 50 legal attachés at United States Diplomatic mission, embassies and Consul (representative), consulates. Many specialized FBI functions are located at facilities in Quantico, Virginia, as well as a "data campus" in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where 96 million sets of fingerprints "from across the United States are stored, along with others collected by American authorities from prisoners in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan."Dana Priest, Priest, Dana and William Arkin, Arkin, William (December 2010Personnel
, the FBI had a total of 33,852 employees. That includes 13,412 special agents and 20,420 support professionals, such as intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, information technology specialists, and other professionals. The Officer Down Memorial Page provides the biographies of 86 FBI agents who have died in the line of duty from 1925 to February 2021.Hiring process
To apply to become an FBI agent, one must be between the ages of 23 and 37, unless one is a preference-eligible veteran, in which case one may apply after age 37. The applicant must also hold U.S. citizenship, be of high moral character, have a clean record, and hold at least a four-year bachelor's degree. At least three years of professional work experience prior to application is also required. All FBI employees require a Top Secret (TS) security clearance, and in many instances, employees need a TS/SCI (Classified information in the United States#Top Secret, Top Secret/Collateral clearance, Sensitive Compartmented Information) clearance. To obtain a security clearance, all potential FBI personnel must pass a series of Single Scope Background Investigations (SSBI), which are conducted by the United States Office of Personnel Management, Office of Personnel Management. Special agent candidates also have to pass a Physical Fitness Test (PFT), which includes a 300-meter run, one-minute sit-ups, maximum push-ups, and a run. Personnel must pass a polygraph test with questions including possible drug use. Applicants who fail polygraphs may not gain employment with the FBI. Up until 1975, the FBI had a minimum height requirement of .BOI and FBI directors
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI directors are List of positions filled by presidential appointment with Senate confirmation, appointed (nominated) by the President of the United States and must be confirmed by the United States Senate to serve a term of office of ten years, subject to resignation or removal by the President at his/her discretion before their term ends. Additional terms are allowed following the same procedure.Firearms
Upon qualification, an FBI special agent is issued a full-size Glock 22 or compact Glock 23 semi-automatic pistol, both of which are chambered in the .40 S&W Cartridge (firearms), cartridge. In May 1997, the FBI officially adopted the Glock, in .40 S&W, for general agent use, and first issued it to New Agent Class 98-1 in October 1997. At present, the Glock 23 "FG&R" (finger groove and rail; either 3rd generation or "Gen4") is the issue sidearm. New agents are issued firearms, on which they must qualify, on successful completion of their training at the FBI Academy. The Glock 26 (subcompact 9 mm Parabellum), Glock 23 and Glock 27 (.40 S&W compact and subcompact, respectively) are authorized as secondary weapons. Special agents are also authorized to purchase and qualify with the Glock 21 in .45 ACP. Special agents of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Teams, regional SWAT teams are issued the Springfield Armory, Inc., Springfield Armory M1911 pistol, Professional Model 1911 pistol in .45 ACP. In June 2016, the FBI awarded Glock Ges.m.b.H., Glock a contract for new handguns. Unlike the currently issued .40 S&W chambered Glock pistols, the new Glocks will be chambered for 9 mm Parabellum. The contract is for the full-size Glock 17M and the compact Glock 19M. The "M" means the Glocks have been modified to meet government standards specified by a 2015 government request for proposal.Publications
The ''FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin'' is published monthly by the FBI Law Enforcement Communication Unit, with articles of interest to state and local Law enforcement agency, law enforcement personnel. First published in 1932 as ''Fugitives Wanted by Police'', the ''FBI Law Bulletin'' covers topics including law enforcement technology and issues, such as crime mapping and use of force, as well as recent criminal justice research, and Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, ViCAP alerts, on wanted suspects and key cases. The FBI also publishes some reports for both law enforcement personnel as well as regular citizens covering topics including law enforcement, terrorism, Computer crime, cybercrime, white-collar crime, violent crime, and statistics. However, the vast majority of Federal government of the United States, federal government publications covering these topics are published by the Office of Justice Programs agencies of the United States Department of Justice, and disseminated through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.Crime statistics
During the 1920s the FBI began issuing crime reports by gathering numbers from local police departments. Due to limitations of this system that were discovered during the 1960s and 1970s—victims often simply did not report crimes to the police in the first place—the United States Department of Justice, Department of Justice developed an alternative method of tallying crime, the victimization survey.Uniform Crime Reports
The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) compile data from over 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. They provide detailed data regarding the volume of crimes to include arrest, clearance (or closing a case), and law enforcement officer information. The UCR focuses its data collection on violent crimes, hate crimes, and property crimes. Created in the 1920s, the UCR system has not proven to be as ''uniform'' as its name implies. The UCR data only reflect the most serious offense in the case of connected crimes and has a very restrictive definition of rape. Since about 93% of the data submitted to the FBI is in this format, the UCR stands out as the publication of choice as most states require law enforcement agencies to submit this data. Preliminary Annual ''Uniform Crime Report'' for 2006 was released on June 4, 2006. The report shows violent crime offenses rose 1.3%, but the number of property crime offenses decreased 2.9% compared to 2005.National Incident-Based Reporting System
The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) crime statistics system aims to address limitations inherent in UCR data. The system is used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for collecting and reporting data on crimes. Local, state, and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from their records management systems. Data is collected on every incident and arrest in the Group A offense category. The Group A offenses are 46 specific crimes grouped in 22 offense categories. Specific facts about these offenses are gathered and reported in the NIBRS system. In addition to the Group A offenses, eleven Group B offenses are reported with only the arrest information. The NIBRS system is in greater detail than the summary-based UCR system. , 5,271 law enforcement agencies submitted NIBRS data. That amount represents 20% of the United States population and 16% of the crime statistics data collected by the FBI.eGuardian
eGuardian is the name of an FBI system, launched in January 2009, to share tips about possible terror threats with local police agencies. The program aims to get law enforcement at all levels sharing data quickly about suspicious activity and people. eGuardian enables near real-time sharing and tracking of terror information and suspicious activities with local, state, tribal, and federal agencies. The eGuardian system is a spin-off of a similar but classified tool called Guardian that has been used inside the FBI, and shared with vetted partners since 2005.Controversies
Throughout its history, the FBI has been the subject of many controversies, both at home and abroad. * List of FBI controversies#Files on Puerto Rican independence advocates, Files on Puerto Rican independence advocates – Member of Congress, Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, Luiz Gutierrez revealed that Pedro Albizu Campos and his Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Nationalist political party had been watched for a decade-long period in the 1930s. * Whitey Bulger, The Whitey Bulger case – The FBI was, and continues to be, criticized for its handling of Boston criminal Whitey Bulger. As a result of Bulger acting as an informant, the agency turned a blind eye to his activities as an exchange. * Latin America – For decades during the Cold War, the FBI placed agents to monitor the governments of Caribbean and Latin American nations. * Surveillance, Domestic surveillance – In 1985, it was found that the FBI had made use of surveillance devices on numerous American citizens between 1940 and 1960. * Robert Hanssen – In what is described by the US United States Department of Justice, Department of Justice (DOJ) as "Robert Hanssen, possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history". Hanssen managed to evade the FBI as he simultaneously sold thousands of classified American documents to Soviet Union, Soviet GRU, intelligence operatives. * Viola Liuzzo – Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant who at the time was also an active member of the Ku Klux Klan, assisted in the murder of Viola Liuzzo (a civil rights activist) in 1965, and afterwards, Defamation, defamatory rumors were spread by the Bureau about the victim. * Ruby Ridge (1992) was a shootout between the FBI and Randy Weaver over his failure to appear for weapons charges. * Waco siege (1993) was a failed raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF that resaulted in the death of 4 ATF agents and 6 Branch Davidians. The FBI and US military got involved with the 51 day siege that followed. The building ended up burning down killing 76 including 26 children. This is what motivated Timothy McVeigh (along with Ruby Ridge) to carry out the Oklahoma City bombing (1995). * Associated Press, Associated Press (AP) impersonation case – A Bureau agent, masquerading as an AP journalist, placed Spyware, surveillance software in the personal computer of a minor. This resulted in a series of conflicts between the news agency and the FBI. * Stoneman Douglas High School shooting – A statement from the FBI confirmed that it had failed to act on a tip warning of the possibility of the shooting over a month prior to its occurrence, which may have prevented the tragedy outright. Specific practices include: * Internal investigations of shootings – A professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha suggested that FBI internal reports found a questionably high number of Shooting, weapon discharges by its agents to be justified. * Covert operations on political groups – Political groups deemed disruptive have been investigated and discredited by the FBI in the aim of "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing Social order, social and Political system, political order." * FBI surveillance since 2010 – In the years since 2010, it has been uncovered by various civil liberties groups (such as the American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU]) that the FBI earmarked disproportionate resources for the surveillance of Left-wing politics, left-leaning movements and political organizations. The FBI has also committed several breaches of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment in this time. * List of FBI controversies#Files on U.S. citizens, Files on U.S. citizens – The Bureau kept files on certain individuals for varying reasons and lengths of time, notably, FBI files on Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Denver.Media portrayal
The FBI has been frequently depicted in popular media since the 1930s. The bureau has participated to varying degrees, which has ranged from direct involvement in the creative process of film or TV series development, to providing consultation on operations and closed cases. A few of the notable portrayals of the FBI on television are the series ''The X-Files'', which started in 1993 and concluded its eleventh season in early 2018, and concerned investigations into paranormal phenomena by five fictional special agents, and the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) agency in the TV drama ''24 (TV series), 24'', which is patterned after the FBI Counterterrorism Division. The 1991 movie ''Point Break (1991 film), Point Break'' depicts an undercover FBI agent who infiltrated a gang of bank robbers. The 1997 movie ''Donnie Brasco (film), Donnie Brasco'' is based on the true story of undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone infiltrating the Mafia. The 2005–2020 television series ''Criminal Minds'', that follows the team members of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) in the pursuit of serial killers. The 2017 TV series Riverdale (2017 TV series), Riverdale where one of the main characters is an FBI agent. The 2015 TV series ''Quantico (TV series), Quantico'', titled after the location of the Bureau's training facility, deals with probationary and special agents, not all of whom, within the show's format, may be fully reliable or even trustworthy. The 2018 series ''FBI (TV series), FBI'', set in NYC that follows the personal and professional lives of the agents assigned to 26 Federal Plaza (NYC FBI field office). ''FBI'' first spin-off titled ''FBI: Most Wanted'' (2019), follows the FBI's Fugitive Task Force in chasing down the US's most wanted criminals, and the second spin-off, ''FBI: International'' (2021), follows the FBI's International Fly Team that goes where ever they're needed in the world to protect the US's interests.Notable FBI personnel
* Edwin Atherton * Ed Bethune * James Comey * Alaska P. Davidson * Sibel Edmonds * Mark Felt, W. Mark Felt * James R. Fitzgerald * Robert Hanssen *See also
* Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) * Law enforcement in the United States * List of United States state and local law enforcement agencies * State bureau of investigation * United States Marshals Service (USMS) * FBI Honorary Medals * FBI Victims Identification Project * History of espionage * Inspector * Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of InvestigationReferences
Further reading
* * Graves, Melissa. "FBI Historiography: From Leader to Organisation" in Christopher R. Moran, Christopher J. Murphy, eds. '' Intelligence Studies in Britain and the US: Historiography since 1945'' (Edinburgh UP, 2013) pp. 129–145External links