FBI agents using a field phone in the 1940s
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Reaching the century mark A brief history of the FBI: 1908-2008 By Yenli Yeh Associate Professor of Administration of Justice When I ask administration of justice majors why they chose to study in this field, the most frequent response is, “I hope to work for the FBI someday.” This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Administration of Justice major at UVaWise and the 100th anniversary of the FBI, making this brief history a fitting observance for UVa-Wise readers. THE BEGINNING: 1908 TO 1909 During the 1870s to early 1900s, police officers were poorly trained and largely controlled by wealthy owners of corporations and corrupt politicians to arrest low-waged workers who challenged authority in labor disputes. With the growing population and a rise in crime at the turn of the century, more Americans favored a responsive government for establishing a well-trained federal investigative unit to effectively fight crime and corruption. With the approval of an executive order by President Theodore Roosevelt, Attorney General Charles Bonaparte gained support from Congress in May 1908 to allow the Department of Justice to acquire its own investigating force. Soon, 30 former Secret Service employees became special agents of the Department of Justice and were asked to report to Chief Examiner Stanley Finch, in the summer of 1908. In 1909 the special agents became a permanent part of the Department of Justice and Bonaparte’s successor, George Wickersham, officially named the force the Federal Bureau of Investigation on March 16. Stanley Finch’s title was changed from chief examiner to chief of the FBI in the same year.
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EARLY YEARS: 1910S The 1910 passage of the White-Slave Traffic Act prompted the expansion of the FBI. The act prohibited the interstate and international transport of women and underage girls for prostitution and immorality. With its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the FBI began expanding into other large urban areas. In 1913, Bruce Bielaski succeeded Finch as chief of the Bureau. As the United States entered World War I in 1917, the FBI gained new responsibilities, such as investigating enemy aliens involved in espionage. Many Special Agents gained linguistic experience for translating, reporting and analyzing national security materials. In 1919, the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act, also known as the Dyer Act, authorized the FBI to combat automobile thefts beyond the jurisdiction in which the motor theft crime originally occurred. In July of the same year, William Flynn, became the first person to use the title of director of the Bureau of Investigation. J. Edgar Hoover began his career in the Department of Justice during a major expansion of the Bureau. As a member of the legal staff, Hoover investigated enemy alien operations and assisted in the Intelligence Division. PROHIBITION & DEPRESSION: 1920S TO 1930S With the passage of Prohibition in 1920 came a rise in crime. Many gangster groups corrupted law enforcement to smuggle and sell alcoholic beverages, and gangsters fought
for their territories. Prohibition created a new era for gang violence and organized crime with well-known criminals like Al Capone, who was arrested by Special Agents in March 1929. Important programs undertaken during the 1920s included the Criminal Identification program, which is the early stage of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) - the largest contemporary database for fingerprint and criminal history in the world, maintained and operated by the Bureau of Investigation. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) began in 1929 for collecting reliable national crime statistics proposed by the National Association of Chiefs of Police. In 1924, Hoover began his 48-year directorship of the Bureau. During that time he made changes to professionalize the employees, incorporate Special Agent age limitations and added a new training course and the field office inspection system. Beginning in 1929, the hardship of the Depression created more crime. The public was frightened and did not have confidence in the ability of the FBI. To solidify the Bureau’s reputation, Hoover established the FBI National Academy in 1935 to provide modern law enforcement training. The FBI Technical Laboratory was established in November 1932, with better equipment for forensic analysis. President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded federal jurisdiction for the FBI to fight interstate crimes. WORLD WAR II YEARS: LATE 1930S TO 1945 Fascist and communist groups threatened the security of most European countries during the late 1930s. Although the United States remained neutral, the federal government was alerted to the same threat to American society. Roosevelt strengthened the FBI’s authority to investigate subversives in 1939 before Congress passed the Alien Registration Act in 1940 to label as criminals those aliens who attempted to overthrow the government. From the late 1930s to the end of World War II, investigations of subversion, sabotage, espionage and war-related crimes were the FBI’s major responsibilities. Most Special Agents were trained in intelligence work and investigated threats to national security. Domestic and foreign counterintelligence was the FBI’s major priority before and during the war. After the United States declared war on Japan on Dec. 7, 1941, the FBI ran a 24-hour war schedule in its headquarters and all field offices. POSTWAR YEARS: 1945 TO 1960S The FBI’s role of investigating threats to national security was expanded during the presidency of both Truman and Eisenhower because of the existing Communist threat. Throughout the 1950s the FBI was authorized to conduct background checks for all federal employees to crack down on undercover spies. However, the FBI’s traditional mission of fighting crime remained important, and its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list began in March 1950. During the peak of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Congress passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1960 to outlaw anyone who obstructed voting rights. The Civil Right Acts of 1964 banned segregation and discrimination based on race, sex, religion or nationality. Any civil rights violations were subject to be investigated by federal agents. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) launched in January 1967 and has been a centralized database of tracking crime-related information for local, state police force
and federal law enforcement agencies since that time. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports showed crime rates increased during the 1960s. Congress passed the Crime Control Act and Safe Street Act in June 1968 to provide more federal funds for local and state law enforcement agencies to fight crimes and expand the federal government’s assistance to local and state law enforcement. VIETNAM WAR & WATERGATE: 1968 TO 1970S American society became unstable with more violence due to conflicts of ideology beginning in the late 1960s. Antiwar statements were widespread at the University of Wisconsin and Kent State University, which led to bomb threats, campus violence and student deaths. The FBI was in charge of investigating both campus antiwar violence and murders. Presidents Johnson and Nixon were eager to establish a new order for America and the FBI played a critical role to combat antiwar and civil rights-related violence and crimes, conspiracy and threats to national security during that time period. However, there were no guidelines for FBI Special Agents’ investigations on domestic communists, counterterrorists and any intelligence activities related to threats to national security since 1908. Some individuals and groups during the 1960s criticized the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) by conducting controversial techniques of investigation. Illegal surveillance, infiltration and extra-legal force were used and aimed at domestic communists, the Ku Klux Klan and any political party that threatened national security under Hoover’s directorship. Hoover terminated the COINTELPRO operation under pressure from the nation and Congress in April 1971. The next year, Hoover died in his sleep on May 2 at age 77. President Nixon appointed Patrick Gray as acting director of the FBI with confirmation from the Senate on May 3, 1972. Gray was the first FBI Director to appoint women as Special Agents since 1908. The new FBI Academy, located on the United States Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., was opened in the summer of 1972. This 385-acre FBI Academy complex has different training and learning units, including the well-known Behavioral Science Unit, Field and Policing Unit, International Training Program, Firearms Training Unit, Forensic Science Research and Training Center, Investigative Training Unit, Investigative Computer Training Unit, Leadership and Management Science Unit, Law Enforcement Communication Unit, Physical Training Unit and New Agents’ Training Unit. Five men broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., in June 1972. The Watergate scandal was investigated initially by the FBI, then later by the Senate Watergate Committee. Clarence Kelley, an FBI veteran Special Agent for 33 years, was appointed the new FBI Director after Gray resigned in 1973. Kelley applied a series of new strategies for strengthening the FBI’s operation. Kelley suggested the development of the FBI’s investigative guidelines for domestic and foreign counterintelligence to protect individuals’ constitutional rights. The new guidelines for the FBI’s domestic and foreign counterintelligence were put into effect in 1976. Kelley also stepped up accountant recruitment and undercover operations in order to better combat white-collar crime and increased the recruitment of women as Special Agents during his term as the FBI director. The application of laser technology to detect latent fingerprints at crime scenes was initiated by the FBI’s Identification Division in 1978. FALL 2008
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FBI fingerprint experts FIGHTING INTERNATIONAL CRIME: 1980S William Webster was sworn in as FBI Director after Kelley’s resignation in 1978. With the increasing international drug trade, domestic terrorism, international hostages in Munich, bank fraud and street violence from the late 1970s throughout the 1980s, Webster expanded the FBI’s effort in fighting international organized crime, street violence, white-collar crime and drug-related crime. These expansions included the operation of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) and the Computer Analysis and Response Team (CART) in 1984. The FBI cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for fighting domestic and international drug trafficking. The FBI closely cooperated with local and state law enforcement and other federal agencies to combat terrorism during the 1980s. Congress expanded the FBI’s jurisdiction to investigate terrorist activities against U.S. alien residents and citizens outside the United States in 1986. The Hostage Rescue Team was established in 1983 for handling violent hostage situations. During this decade, the FBI investigated banking loan frauds, insider trading, white-collar crime and banking corruption related to the banking and loan crisis of the 1980s. The FBI employed more than 9,600 Special Agents and 13,600 staff by the end of 1988. SPECIAL RESPONSES TO CRIMES: 1990S TO 2000 The FBI continued to face rapidly increasing domestic violent crimes and more international threats to the national security in the 1990s. Louis Freeh became the new FBI director in 1993, and he was prepared to lead the FBI to respond to new waves of violent crime, white-collar crime and threats to national security. The FBI created the nationwide Operation Safe Street program to fight gang violence and capture fugitives by providing close assistance to local and state law enforcement. The National Security Threat List was created by the FBI in 1991 and it identified eight categories of activities to target terrorism, espionage, proliferation, economic espionage and foreign intelligence activities as major threats to the national security of America. The FBI is responsible for investigating these categories of activities related to any country. The Evidence Response Team Unit (ERTU) was established in 1992 to ensure crime evidence is collected and processed in a professional manner. ERTU is composed of Special Agents,
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forensic experts, program analysts with highly developed equipment to assist in crime investigations. The Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI) was created in September 1995, as a part of the FBI’s Cyber Crime Unit to fight Internet child pornography. The DNA Identification Act of 1994 is part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and it gave the FBI the authority to create the National DNA Index System (NDIS), a database of DNA profile records submitted by all local and state law enforcement agencies nationwide for solving crimes. Several major events in the 1990s challenged the FBI’s ability to respond to special crises. These high-profile incidents included the Waco Siege (1993), the World Trade Center bombing (1993), the Oklahoma City bombing (1995), the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing (1998) and the United States Embassies bombings in Kenya and Tanzania (1998). The FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) was established in 1994 for more effective and rapid responses to crisis situations, such as high-risk violent crime, bombings, child abductions, prison riots, terrorist attacks and hostages. Osama Bin Laden was at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted List in September 1999 because of his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. Embassies bombings. In the same year, the FBI’s new laboratory facility in Quantico began providing forensic examination, analysis and technical support to law enforcement agencies nationwide. A NEW ERA OF CHALLENGES: 2001 TO PRESENT Robert Mueller, a former U.S. Attorney, became the director of the FBI in September 2001 shortly before the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11. The FBI investigated the 9/11 attacks with local, state and other federal and international law enforcement agencies to track down terrorists. Osama Bin Laden is still number one on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for his involvement in these attacks. The Uniting and Strengthening America Appropriate Tool Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, also known as the USA PATRIOT Act, was approved by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in 2001. Later, Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005. These two laws increase the authority of the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies for searching telephone, e-mail and other records related to foreign intelligence and arrest suspects involved in terrorism-related activities in the United States. Mueller has ordered an update of the FBI’s information technology facilities, enhancement of the analysis of domestic and foreign counterintelligence, reorganization of headquarters, increase in cooperation with all law enforcement agencies nationwide, a focus on preventing terrorist attacks and improvement of the FBI’s operations of combating crimes. As the FBI faces new challenges in the 21st century, more efforts are devoted to carry out its missions of combating crimes, protecting the safety of the public and protecting America from terrorist attacks as well as serving the Constitution of the United States. From 30 special Agents in 1908 to more than 30,000 employees in 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become a symbol of justice and an icon of fighting crime in the United States. This essay is dedicated to my beloved pal Tony, who inspires me, encourages me and is there for me always.