FBI stands for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the institution that strives to reduce crime rates and saves many people’s lives daily. The United States is proud to have developed FBI to stand up against violence, crime, and murders to bring serenity and peace to American citizens and their children. The bureau emerged in 1908 during therein of Theodor Roosevelt when Attorney general Charles Bonaparte created a force of agents to work for the department of justice (Jeffreys-Jones, p. 9). Theodor Roosevelt and Charles Bonaparte were looking forward to create a powerful law enforcement organization that could ensure national security. This is how it was formed at first and still exists nowadays fulfilling the main duty of securing peace within the state.
However, it has to be mentioned that the FBI was not fully the same as it is today. In 1870 the agency underwent a system of partial duties management. Since this was a newly-formed organization to convey law enforcement, there had to be different departments, which the authorities did not quite know about at first because of the lack of experience. Nevertheless, in order to carry out crime prevention they used to hire private detectives. In 1907 the secret service – reporting to their own chief – exercised this duty. This, however, did not imply impartial control over the organization by Bonaparte. As such, congress agreed to form a separate force which bore a significant historical twist for FBI.
Interestingly, the force that now had to be created had the most unexpected history of development. Attorney General Bonaparte had to employ the agents, while there were only several worthy candidates. Therefore, he accepted a number of peonage investigators and secret agents who started working. Therefore, these people were gathered together in order to serve the society and ensure security. It was evident that somehow they should have been examined. Thus, in 1908, July, the team of these men reported to the Chief Examiner Stanley. W. Finch. As a result the President Theodor Roosevelt and the Attorney General Bonaparte claimed that those 34 men would be a part of the Department of Justice permanently from then on. The bureau was named as it is known today by the successor of the General Bonaparte, however. His name was George Wickersham and he claimed the organization to be named FBI in 1909. Although there was a little need in federal crime investigations at those times, the agency has gained a great importance with time.
The agency embarked on a hard but successful plan of development. The next several years were significant for many achievements in knowledge management and overall expansion of the organization. In several years there were 300 agents and 300 members working in support stuff. There was a special agent to report to Washington. The Secret Service former chief executive William J Flynn was appointed to FBI director’s position in 1919. The same year FBI got a new helping tool to investigate crimes after the National Motor Vehicle Act adoption in order to persecute people illegally crossing the state borders. By 1917 there were 650 with 441 special Agents. Significantly, in 1932 FBI started its fingerprint collection that serves as a great identification system nowadays. Since then an extensive fingerprint collection has been developing and enriching by every department from every city.
Seniority rule of promotion was abolished by Hoover and he introduced uniform performance appraisals. In 1928, Hoover established a formal training course for new agents and age requirement of 25 – 35 years range to apply. Hoover also went back to the earlier preference for special agents with accounting and law experience. Establishment of identification division was accomplished in the early days of Hoover Directorship. Identification Records had been considered a crucial tool of law in tracking criminals. A federal kidnapping statute was passed by congress in 1932, and in 1934 a number of federal crime laws that significantly enhanced the Bureaus jurisdiction were passed. When the Kansas City Massacre happened, Congress gave statutory authority to Bureau agents to carry guns and make arrests (Kessler, p. 178). On July, 1932, the Bureau of Investigation was named the United States of America Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI is the principal investigative arm of the US department of justice and also a full member of the US intelligence community. It has been given the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes allocated to it and to give other law enforcement agencies cooperative services like fingerprint identification, laboratory exams and training.
The mission of the FBI includes protecting, defending the USA against terrorists and foreign intelligence threats. They also have to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the USA and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to all levels of government. The US president is the one to appoint the FBI director and confirmation is left to the senate and he can only serve a maximum of 10 years. Currently, the FBI has over 35,437 employees and annual budget of $7.9 billion.
Works Cited
- Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. The FBI: A History. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Print.
- Kessler, Ronald. The Secrets of the FBI. New York: Crown, 2011.