The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is by far the most popularized federal law enforcement agency. The FBI originated from a special force of elite and specially trained law enforcement agents created in 1908 by then-Attorney General Charles Bonaparte under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Today, the FBI is the major investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, with its authority found in Title 28, Section 533 of the U.S. Code (Cole and Smith 2005).
J. Edgar Hoover was the director of the FBI from 1924 until his death in 1972. Under Hoover, the Bureau of Investigation was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hoover established the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and institutionalized the FBI National Training Academy, an educational and training facility for law enforcement throughout the United States and the world (Cole and Smith 2005).
The FBI National Academy, established in 1935, provides a professional and academic course of study for U.S. and international law enforcement officers. It was created in response to the 1930s’ Wickersham Commission that had recommended the standardization and professionalization of law enforcement across the country. Prior to the Commission, police training was on an ad hoc basis, with little uniformity existing in the training of law enforcement. When it was recognized that the performance of a police officer was not based solely on his personality but also his training, the FBI Academy became an accepted addition to law enforcement. With formal training needed to gain an understanding of the legal rules, weapon use, and the socialization of law enforcement officers, new agents and seasoned law enforcement officers in the field learn the various aspects of the job through other officers.
Included under the umbrella of the FBI Academy are various specialized units (to include the New Agents’ Training Unit and the Investigative Computer Training Unit), the National Academy, and the International Academy. The academy’s mission is ”to support, promote, and enhance the personal and professional development of law enforcement leaders by preparing them for complex, dynamic, and contemporary challenges through innovative techniques, facilitating excellence in education and research, and forging partnerships throughout the world.” Nowhere in the academy’s mission are the themes of elitism or exclusion communicated. The academy works in partnership with all law enforcement in training.
The New Agents’ Training Unit provides seventeen weeks of instruction in academics, firearms, operational skills, and integrated case scenarios. New Agents’ Trainees (NATs) are also required to pass a physical training test and a defensive tactics test while attending the academy. In addition, NATs must conduct interviews, perform surveillance, and apply street survival techniques taught by the academy instructors. Instructors, for the most part, are agents in the field who volunteer to spend seventeen weeks at the academy to train future agents.
The Investigative Computer Training Unit (ICTU) provides computer instruction and curriculum development to FBI and other law enforcement personnel throughout the world. The training through ICTU includes how to use the computer (1) as an investigative tool, (2) as a communications device, and (3) to analyze digital evidence. ICTU has also developed partnerships with other federal law enforcement agencies to provide training to local and regional computer crime units (Evans 1991). Finally, ICTU provides investigative computer training internationally to law enforcement schools in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The academy students, law enforcement leaders, attend the academy to gain the tools to improve their administration of justice within their home law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement officers, aware of the excellent quality of training within the FBI Academy, often wait years for their opportunity to attend it. For ten weeks, law enforcement officers, based throughout the country, attend undergraduate and/or graduate courses on the U.S. Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia, in the areas of law, behavioral science, forensic science, leadership development, communications, and health/ fitness. These selected officers dedicate themselves to the training at the academy as they place both their professional and personal lives on hold while attending their session.
The current facility, opened in 1972, is located on approximately four hundred acres of land and provides the private, safe, and secure environment necessary to carry out the training function required by the FBI. Within the facility is a firearms range as well as simulated communities for use in case scenarios. To date, the FBI National Academy has graduated approximately forty thousand law enforcement officers of all genders, races, and ethnicities. After graduation, each officer has the opportunity to join the National Academy Associates, an organization of more than fifteen thousand law enforcement professionals who continue to work together. This organization of associates is dedicated to the continued improvement of law enforcement through training and education.
In addition to the FBI National Academy, there is also the FBI International Training Program. After 9/11, the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies began focusing their efforts on preventing terrorist threats against the United States. New laws, such as the PATRIOT Act, expanded the FBI’s antiterrorism powers. In 2002, Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, which, in coordination with the CIA and the FBI, now coordinates the training efforts to combat terrorism. The FBI International Training Program is the FBI’s part of that coordination. The mission of the International Training section is to administer and coordinate all international mission-oriented training for the FBI.
Because the director of the FBI is currently charged with the duty to detect and investigate crimes committed against the government, the establishment of the international training component was critical to carrying out this directive. The international training initiatives fall into the basic categories of (1) international country assessments, (2) international in-country training, (3) international training conducted in the United States, (4) FBI instructor development and cultural awareness, (5) international law enforcement academies, (6) Mexican/American Law Enforcement Training initiatives, and (7) the Pacific Rim Training Initiative (PTI). Through these initiatives, national and international efforts to protect the citizens of the United States and to train law enforcement are supported.
Finally, the FBI and its FBI Training Academy conduct three five-day seminars under its National Executive Institute. These seminars are for large local and state law enforcement agencies. In addition, they also conduct eighteen regional executive training mini-sessions each year for small law enforcement agencies.
The FBI is probably the most well-known federal law enforcement agency, although the facility is not open to the public. With more than ten thousand agents and an annual budget of more than $3 billion, the FBI and FBI Academy now place their greatest emphasis on investigations and training in the areas of white collar crime, organized crime, terrorism, foreign intelligence within the United States, and political corruption. Today the FBI Academy provides valuable assistance to state and local law enforcement through its programs. The FBI strives for excellence by adhering to the law and its duties as conferred by the U.S. Congress, through everyday ethical behavior, by demonstrating fairness, and through the training of law enforcement officers by the FBI Training Academy. The FBI’s motto is ”Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity.”
