What was the fbis first mission

Several factors converged to undermine domestic Communism in the s. Situations like the Soviet defeat of the Hungarian rebellion in caused many members to abandon the American Communist Party. However, the FBI also played a role in diminishing Party influence. The Bureau was responsible for the investigation and arrest of alleged spies and Smith Act violators, most of whom were convicted. Through Hoover's speeches, articles, testimony, and books like Masters of Deceit, the FBI helped alert the public to the Communist threat.

The FBI's role in fighting crime also expanded in the postwar period through its assistance to state and local law enforcement and through increased jurisdictional responsibility. Advances in forensic science and technical development enabled the FBI to devote a significant proportion of its resources to assisting state and local law enforcement agencies.

One method of continuing assistance was through the National Academy. Another was to use its greater resources to help states and localities solve their cases. A dramatic example of aid to a state occurred after the midair explosion of a plane over Colorado in The FBI Laboratory examined hundreds of airplane parts, pieces of cargo, and the personal effects of passengers.

It pieced together evidence of a bomb explosion from passenger luggage, then painstakingly looked into the backgrounds of the 44 victims. Ultimately, Agents identified the perpetrator and secured his confession, then turned the case over to Colorado authorities who successfully prosecuted it in a state court. At the same time, Congress gave the FBI new federal laws with which to fight civil rights violations, racketeering, and gambling.

Up to this time, the interpretation of federal civil rights statutes by the Supreme Court was so narrow that few crimes, however heinous, qualified to be investigated by federal agents. The turning point in federal civil rights actions occurred in the summer of , with the murder of voting registration workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney near Philadelphia, Mississippi. At the Department of Justice's request, the FBI conducted the investigation as it had in previous, less-publicized racial incidents.

The case against the perpetrators took years to go through the courts. Only after , when the Supreme Court made it clear that federal law could be used to prosecute civil rights violations, were seven men found guilty.

By the late s, the confluence of unambiguous federal authority and local support for civil rights prosecutions allowed the FBI to play an influential role in enabling African Americans to vote, serve on juries, and use public accommodations on an equal basis.

Involvement of the FBI in organized crime investigations also was hampered by the lack of possible federal laws covering crimes perpetrated by racketeers. After Prohibition, many mob activities were carried out locally, or if interstate, they did not constitute major violations within the Bureau's jurisdiction.

An impetus for federal legislation occurred in with the discovery by Sergeant Croswell of the New York State Police that many of the best known mobsters in the United States had met together in upstate New York. The FBI collected information on all the individuals identified at the meeting, confirming the existence of a national organized-crime network. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of provided for the use of court-ordered electronic surveillance in the investigation of certain specified violations.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations RICO Statute of allowed organized groups to be prosecuted for all of their diverse criminal activities, without the crimes being linked by a perpetrator or all-encompassing conspiracy. Along with greater use of Agents for undercover work by the late s, these provisions helped the FBI develop cases that, in the s, put almost all the major traditional crime family heads in prison. A national tragedy produced another expansion of FBI jurisdiction.

When President Kennedy was assassinated, the crime was a local homicide; no federal law addressed the murder of a President.

Nevertheless, President Lyndon B. Johnson tasked the Bureau with conducting the investigation. Congress then passed a new law to ensure that any such act in the future would be a federal crime. Nevertheless, in alone, an estimated 3, bombings and 50, bomb threats occurred in the United States.

Opposition to the war in Vietnam brought together numerous anti-establishment groups and gave them a common goal. The convergence of crime, violence, civil rights issues, and potential national security issues ensured that the FBI played a significant role during this troubled period. Presidents Johnson and Nixon and Director Hoover shared with many Americans a perception of the potential dangers to this country from some who opposed its policies in Vietnam.

As Hoover observed in a PTA Magazine article, the United States was confronted with "a new style in conspiracy--conspiracy that is extremely subtle and devious and hence difficult to understand Antiwar sentiment was widespread at the University of Wisconsin UW , where two of them were students.

A graduate student was killed and three others were injured. That crime occurred a few months after National Guardsmen killed four students and wounded several others during an antiwar demonstration at Kent State University. The FBI investigated both incidents. Together, these events helped end the "romance with violence" for all but a handful of hardcore New Left revolutionaries. Draft dodging and property damage had been tolerable to many antiwar sympathizers. Deaths were not.

By , with few exceptions, the most extreme members of the antiwar movement concentrated on more peaceable, yet still radical tactics, such as the clandestine publication of The Pentagon Papers. However, the violent Weathermen and its successor groups continued to challenge the FBI into the s.

No specific guidelines for FBI Agents covering national security investigations had been developed by the Administration or Congress; these, in fact, were not issued until It used both traditional investigative techniques and counterintelligence programs "Cointelpro" to counteract domestic terrorism and conduct investigations of individuals and organizations who threatened terroristic violence. Wiretapping and other intrusive techniques were discouraged by Hoover in the mids and eventually were forbidden completely unless they conformed to the Omnibus Crime Control Act.

Hoover formally terminated all "Cointelpro" operations on April 28, FBI Director J. He was The next day his body lay in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol, an honor accorded only 21 other Americans. Hoover's successor would have to contend with the complex turmoil of that troubled time. President Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray as Acting Director the day after Hoover's death. After retiring from a distinguished Naval career, Gray had continued in public service as the Department of Justice's Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division.

The break-in had been authorized by Republican Party officials. FBI Agents undertook a thorough investigation of the break-in and related events. However, when Gray's questionable personal role was revealed, he withdrew his name from the Senate's consideration to be Director. He was replaced hours after he resigned on April 27, , by William Ruckleshaus, a former Congressman and the first head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who remained until Clarence Kelley's appointment as Director on July 9, Vice President Spiro T.

Agnew resigned in October, following charges of tax evasion. Then, following impeachment hearings that were broadcast over television to the American public throughout , President Nixon resigned on August 9, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as President that same day. In granting an unconditional pardon to ex-President Nixon one month later, he vowed to heal the nation. Director Kelley similarly sought to restore public trust in the FBI and in law enforcement.

He instituted numerous policy changes that targeted the training and selection of FBI and law enforcement leaders, the procedures of investigative intelligence collection, and the prioritizing of criminal programs. In , Kelley instituted Career Review Boards and programs to identify and train potential managers. For upper management of the entire law enforcement community, the FBI, in cooperation with the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chief Administrators, started the National Executive Institute, which provided high-level executive training and encouraged future operational cooperation.

Kelley also responded to scrutiny by Congress and the media on whether FBI methods of collecting intelligence in domestic security and counterintelligence investigations abridged Constitutional rights. The FBI had traditionally used its own criteria for intelligence collection, based on executive orders and blanket authority granted by attorney generals. After congressional hearings, Attorney General Edward Levi established finely detailed guidelines for the first time.

The guidelines for FBI foreign counterintelligence investigations went into effect on March 10, , and for domestic security investigations on April 5, The latter were superseded March 21, Kelley's most significant management innovation, however, was implementing the concept of "Quality over Quantity" investigations.

He directed each field office to set priorities based on the types of cases most important in its territory and to concentrate resources on those priority matters. Strengthening the "Quality over Quantity" concept, the FBI as a whole established three national priorities: foreign counterintelligence, organized crime, and white-collar crime. To handle the last priority, the Bureau intensified its recruitment of accountants. It also stepped up its use of undercover operations in major cases.

During Kelley's tenure as Director, the FBI made a strong effort to develop an Agent force with more women and one that was more reflective of the ethnic composition of the United States. At the time of his appointment, Webster was serving as Judge of the U. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He had previously been a Judge of the U. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. In , following an explosion of terrorist incidents worldwide, Webster made counterterrorism a fourth national priority.

He also expanded FBI efforts in the three others: foreign counterintelligence, organized crime, and white-collar crime. The FBI solved so many espionage cases during the mids that the press dubbed "the year of the spy. Throughout the s, the illegal drug trade severely challenged the resources of American law enforcement.

The expanded Department of Justice attention to drug crimes resulted in the confiscation of millions of dollars in controlled substances, the arrests of major narcotics figures, and the dismantling of important drug rings. One of the most publicized, dubbed "the Pizza Connection" case, involved the heroin trade in the United States and Italy. It resulted in 18 convictions, including a former leader of the Sicilian Mafia.

Then Assistant U. Attorney Louis J. Freeh, who was to be appointed FBI Director in , was key to prosecutive successes in the case. On another front, Webster strengthened the FBI's response to white-collar crimes. Public corruption was attacked nationwide. As the United States faced a financial crisis in the failures of savings and loan associations during the s, the FBI uncovered instances of fraud that lay behind many of those failures. It was perhaps the single largest investigative effort undertaken by the FBI to that date: from investigating 10 bank failures in , it had bank failures under investigation by February In the course of its efforts to anticipate and prepare for acts of terrorism and street crime, it built important bridges of interaction and cooperation with local, state, and other federal agencies, as well as agencies of other countries.

It also unveiled the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team as a domestic force capable of responding to complex hostage situations such as tragically occurred in Munich at the games. Perhaps as a result of the Bureau's emphasis on combatting terrorism, such acts within the United States decreased dramatically during the s. Executive Assistant Director John E. Otto became Acting Director and served in that position until November 2, District Court for the Western District of Texas. He had previously served as a District Judge and as U.

Attorney for that district. Under Director Sessions, crime prevention efforts, in place since Director Kelley's tenure, were expanded to include a drug demand reduction program.

FBI offices nationwide began working closely with local school and civic groups to educate young people to the dangers of drugs. While world leaders scrambled to reposition their foreign policies and redefine national security parameters, the FBI responded as an agency in January by reassigning Special Agents from foreign counterintelligence duties to violent crime investigations across the country.

It was an unprecedented opportunity to intensify efforts in burgeoning domestic crime problems--and at the same time to rethink and retool FBI national security programs in counterintelligence and counterterrorism.

In response to a percent increase in crimes of violence over the previous 10 years, Director Sessions had designated the investigation of violent crime as the FBI's sixth national priority program in It was now ready to expand this operational assistance to police nationwide. At the same time, the FBI Laboratory helped change the face of violent criminal identification. Its breakthrough use of DNA technology enabled genetic crime-scene evidence to positively identify--or rule out--suspects by comparing their particular DNA patterns.

This unique identifier enabled the creation of a national DNA Index similar to the fingerprint index, which had been implemented in The FBI also strengthened its response to white-collar crimes. Popularized as "crime in the suites," these nonviolent crimes had steadily increased as automation in and deregulation of industries had created new environments for fraud. Resources were, accordingly, redirected to combat the new wave of large-scale insider bank fraud and financial crimes; to address criminal sanctions in new federal environmental legislation; and to establish long-term investigations of complex health care frauds.

At the same time, the FBI reassessed its strategies in defending the national security, now no longer defined as the containment of communism and the prevention of nuclear war. By creating the National Security Threat List, which was approved by the Attorney General in , it changed its approach from defending against hostile intelligence agencies to protecting U. Only white men were allowed to become special agents; all women and minority men were excluded.

Hoover expected military discipline from his force. Once Melvin Purvis complained that he was late only because the office clock was fast. An inspector wrote, "This man's attitude is not exactly right and he should receive close supervision until such time as it is determined whether or not he is breaking other rules of the department which he does not believe are fair rules. Most special agents were not street-wise and initially made many mistakes.

While attempting to capture the Dillinger gang at Little Bohemia, Wisconsin, on April 22, , special agents accidentally killed an innocent man and wounded two others. In his memoirs, Purvis gave a detailed account of the incident, blaming the urgency of the situation for the lack of preparation.

He wrote, "It is true that during the last several years the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been organized on an emergency basis In spring , the D. On May 18, , Roosevelt signed a bill giving the federal government more power to fight crime. At the ceremony, he said, "I stand squarely behind the efforts of the Department of Justice to bring to book every lawbreaker, big and little.

When special agents killed John Dillinger on July 22, , they became instantly famous. Purvis, head of the Chicago office, became a national hero. Confidence in the D. By making the country safe from public enemies, they represented the New Deal, and the federal government's restoration of a nation that had been on the brink of collapse. Popularly known as G-men, special agents appeared in detective magazines, on radio shows, and in movies. The movie G-Men , which appeared in , changed the balance of power in the Department of Justice.

Until then, Cummings had coordinated a strategy combining public awareness and legislation, as well as police power, to eradicate crime. The agency became so popular that tourists requested tours of its Washington headquarters, particularly the crime laboratories and firing ranges. At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than categories of federal crimes , making the FBI the de-facto lead law enforcement agency of the United States government.

The motto of the bureau is " F idelity, B ravery, I ntegrity. He also is responsible for many of the advancements and changes that made way for it to become one of the top investigative agencies in the world. The J. Edgar Hoover building, the FBI Academy, and the Criminal Justice Information Services Complex serve as the main support offices for each of the field offices that are located throughout the country.