Federal Bureau of Investigation

FBI Organizational Chart

History

In 1908 Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issued an Order creating an investigative agency within the Department of Justice.  The Order was confirmed in 1909 by Attorney General George W. Wickersham, who ordered the establishment of the Bureau of Investigation.  The present name, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was designated by Congress in 1935.

The FBI is headed by a Director who is appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate and serves for a 10-year term.  The current Director took the oath of office on August 2, 2017.  The FBI currently has over 37,100 employees, including approximately 13,700 special agents and 20,100 professionals, who serve as intelligence analysts, linguists, surveillance specialists, engineers, computer scientists, financial analysts, and other professionals. These employees are stationed in 55 field offices and 351[Footnote 1] satellite offices throughout the U.S.; at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.; at the FBI Laboratory and Academy in Quantico, Virginia; Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama; and at the National Counterterrorism Center (Liberty Crossing) where counterterrorism personnel are co-located with their Central Intelligence Agency counterparts.  Others are embedded with federal or state intelligence fusion centers, or detailed to other law enforcement or intelligence agencies.  The FBI’s international presence includes offices in 81 nations worldwide and personnel assigned to U.S. military commands on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and at international training centers from Budapest to Bangkok.

Now in its second century, the FBI must continue to protect the American people from increasingly complex threats in an increasingly interconnected world.  At all times, it acts with obedience to the Constitution and with fairness, compassion, honesty, integrity, and respect.

[Footnote 1] Pending Congressional Approval: Sandusky Resident Agency Closure

Mission

The FBI is a national security and law enforcement agency that uses, collects, and shares intelligence in all it does. As the only member of the Intelligence Community with broad authority to address criminal and national security threats to the Homeland, the FBI has a sworn duty to protect all Americans by staying ahead of the threat. The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.

The FBI has a dual and complementary mission: enforcing federal law and protecting national security. Throughout its history, the FBI has adapted to address the changing threat environment, shifting from focusing on building cases for prosecution to using prosecution as one tool, among many, to dismantle national security threats and criminal activity. Today, adversaries seek to exploit the perceived gaps in the U.S. system between how the FBI approaches national security and criminal threats and how it shares responsibility among the government, academic, and private sectors for defending critical technology, intellectual property, and critical infrastructure. One of the FBI’s most significant challenges in recent history has been the advances in information technology and computer networks eroding the U.S. Government’s and the FBI’s ability to conduct electronic surveillance (data intercept), threatening the Bureau’s effectiveness in each investigative area. The FBI also faces challenges from the proliferation of data as technology becomes more accessible around the globe. These advancements in technology lower the barrier to entry for all threat actors, and increases the speed and skill of their efforts. Faced with these challenges, the FBI has ongoing initiatives to counter threats related to ubiquitous technical surveillance, “Lawful Access,” and other current and emerging technologies.

Major Functions

The mission priorities of the FBI are to:

• Protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks
• Protect the U.S. against foreign intelligence, espionage, and cyber operations
• Combat significant cyber criminal activity
• Combat public corruption at all levels
• Protect civil rights
• Combat transnational criminal enterprises
• Combat significant white-collar crime
• Combat significant violent crime

The FBI’s major functions are to:

• Conduct professional investigations and authorized intelligence collection to identify and counter the threat posed by domestic and international terrorists and their supporters within the United States, and to pursue extraterritorial criminal investigations to bring the perpetrators of terrorist acts to justice. In furtherance of this function, the FBI designs, develops, and implements counterterrorism initiatives that enhance the FBI’s ability to minimize the terrorist threat.
• Conduct counterintelligence activities and coordinate counterintelligence activities of other agencies in the intelligence community within the United States. (Executive Order 12333 includes international terrorist activities in its definition of counterintelligence.)
• Coordinate the efforts of U.S. Government agencies and departments in protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure by identifying and investigating criminal and terrorist group intrusions through physical and cyber-attacks.
• Investigate violations of the laws of the United States and collect evidence in cases in which the United States is or may be a party in interest, except in cases in which such responsibility is by statute or otherwise specifically assigned to another investigative agency.
• Locate and apprehend fugitives for violations of specified federal laws and, when so requested, state and local fugitives pursuant to federal statutory authority.
• Conduct professional investigations to identify, disrupt, and dismantle existing and emerging criminal enterprises whose activities affect the United States. Address international criminal organizations and terrorist groups, which threaten the American people and their property, through expanded international liaison and through the conduct of extraterritorial investigations as mandated by laws and executive orders.
• Gather, analyze, and assess information and intelligence of planned or committed criminal acts.
• Establish and implement quality outreach programs that will ensure FBI and community partnerships and sharing.
• Conduct personnel investigations requisite to the work of the Department of Justice and whenever required by statute or otherwise.
• Establish and conduct law enforcement training programs and conduct research to provide assistance to state and local law enforcement personnel. Participate in interagency law enforcement initiatives that address crime problems common to federal, state, and local agencies.
• Develop new approaches, techniques, systems, equipment, and devices to improve and strengthen law enforcement and assist in conducting state, local, and international law enforcement training programs.
• Provide timely and relevant criminal justice information and identification services concerning individuals, stolen property, criminal organizations and activities, crime statistics, and other law enforcement-related data, not only to the FBI, but to qualified law enforcement, criminal justice, civilian, academic, employment, licensing, and firearms sales organizations.
• Operate the FBI Laboratory not only to serve the FBI, but also to provide, without cost, technical and scientific assistance, including expert testimony in federal or local courts, for all duly constituted law enforcement agencies, other organizational units of the Department of Justice, and other federal agencies; and to provide identification assistance in mass disasters and for other humanitarian purposes.
• Review and assess operations and work performance to ensure compliance with laws, rules, and regulations and to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and economy of operations.
• Effectively and appropriately communicate and disclose information on the FBI mission, accomplishments, operations, and values to Congress, the media, and the public.

Learn About FBI Field Offices