Research Paper on Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was created in the year 1908 during the reign of President Theodore Roosevelt (Wallechinsky, para. 1). Charles Bonaparte was the attorney general by then and played a key role in appointing the special agents to run the agency.

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The Mandate of the Agency

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was established to counter increasing instances of terrorism. The agency and other partners share the information regarding the intelligence that can counter the frequently occurring terrorism (Wallechinsky, para. 3). The primary partner to the Federal Bureau of Investigation is InfraGard whose responsibility is to offer protection against cyber threats. They also provide protection against the vulnerability of the computers against hacking in their databases by the terrorists. The agency conducts the criminal investigation and among the major priorities that the organization has put on the front line include; corruption investigations, the violation of civil rights, among others. Corruption scandals are some of the top ranked investigations done by the agency (Department of Justice, 2014, para.4). The Bureau investigates the elected government officials and other political related crimes such as fraud in elections. Some of the examination for violation of civil rights includes; sexual assaults, hate-related crimes as well as parental matters.

The Management of the Agency

The investigations start from the Office of the Attorney General who offers directives to activities like terrorism counters, criminal investigations, and criminal information-related matters among others. The agency has nine divisions and three offices located in the Washington DC (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, para. 4). It further branches to fifty-six field offices, four hundred satellite-oriented offices, and twenty-three liaison posts headed by the Legal Liaison Officers (Wallechinsky, para. 3). The Agency has approximately ten thousand Special Agent and almost fourteen employees who work in various fields such as; administration, maintenance, and other technical professionals, among others.

The Accomplishments of the Agency over the Last Five Years

One of the major achievements of the organization over the previous five years is countering terrorism through disrupting terrorists financial mechanism. Several masterminds have been arrested in an attempt to support materially and finance terrorism activity plans in Germany from the United States of America (Mueller, p.2). Others have faced prosecution over the remittance of fake money geared toward the support of terrorism attacks.

Critics of the Agency

The main criticism that hit the agency occurred in the year 2001. One involves the bomber known as Timothy McVeigh whose witness document had been withheld by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That raised question from the public as to why the Bureau could hold the records from access by the Attorney General. However, that did not prevent the criminal from being sentenced to death (Wallechinsky, para. 5). The second one was the declaration of shoot-to-kill policy that had been passed by the InfraGard. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation officials refused the claim of such an action.

Reform recommendation

It is recommendable for the agency to carry its duties independently to avoid influence from materialistic leaders under investigation and controversies with other organizations. Also on the above critics, there is need review the law of conduct among Federal Bureau of Investigation officials. Consequently, this would promote honesty and transparency in the organization. Lastly, the agency should impose penalties to staff members upon being irresponsible, dishonest and working contrary to the set standard.

Works Cited

Department of Justice. "Organization, Mission, and Function Manual: Federal Bureau of Investigation." (2014).

Mueller III, Robert S. "Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation." Remarks prepared for FBI Organizational Changes Press Conference. Washington, DC. 2006.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)." Encyclopedia Britannica (2017).

Wallechinsky, David. "Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)." (2016)