Within the American body politic, the FBI is currently and frequently the object of scrutiny and criticism (Defund the FBI, The FBI Is Corrupt, etc.). The scrutiny and criticism is often accompanied by calls for change, reform, or abolition of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
I am a retired FBI Special Agent. I worked as an FBI Special Agent for almost 25 years and still do some contract background investigation work for the FBI. To me the debate about the future of the FBI is intriguing. But while there are calls to reform or eliminate the FBI, I have seen little discussion of how the FBI might be reformed or what (if anything) would replace the FBI if it is eliminated. So, I have started this Substack publication to explore those questions.
Although most Americans can’t imagine a U.S. Government without the FBI. But, before 1908, when the FBI was established, the U.S. Government had operated quite well for more than 100 years with no FBI. And more and more Americans are wondering if continued existence of the FBI is really necessary.
So, what does the FBI do? On its website, the FBI declares that its mission is to “Protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States”. This mission statement would apply to lots of other U.S. Government departments and agencies (Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, etc.). So, let’s explore what the FBI defines as its priorities:
Protect the U.S. from terrorist attack
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
These eight priorities can be readily condensed into three FBI priorities: protect the U.S. from terrorist attack; protect the U.S. against foreign espionage; and combat crimes that affect the U.S. in general. Most Americans would agree that the U.S. Federal Government should work to achieve these three priorities. Indeed, most citizens of any democratically governed nation would agree their national government should work to achieve these three FBI priorities.
But only the U.S. has a Federal Bureau of Investigation dedicated to these three goals. Other democratically governed nations achieve the three FBI priorities without an organization such as the FBI.
This Substack series of articles will explore how the U.S. Government can reform or eliminate the FBI and still achieve the three FBI priorities. Future articles in this series may discuss other topics that are related to the reasons many Americans are calling for the reform or abolition of the FBI.
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