How To Become An FBI Special Agent & Criminal Justice Careers
Special Agent Applicants Career Paths An applicant to become an FBI Special Agent will be assigned one of three different career paths. The career path designation will be based upon the Applicant's skills and abilities. The career path program consists of the following divisions.
Intelligence Division
Counterintelligence Division
Counterterrorism Division
Criminal Investigative Division
Cyber Division
Intelligence Division
The mission of the intelligence program is to optimally position the FBI to meet current and emerging national security and criminal threats by:
Aiming core investigative work proactively against threats to U.S. interests.
Building and sustaining enterprise-wide intelligence policies and, capabilities, and
Providing useful, appropriate, and timely information and analysis to national security, homeland security and law enforcement community.
Counterintelligence Division The FBI is responsible for identifying and neutralizing ongoing national security threats. The Counterintelligence Division provides centralized management and oversight for all Foreign Counterintelligence (FCI) investigations. It ensures that offensive operations and investigations are fully coordinated with the U. S. Intelligence Community, and focused on those countries, foreign powers, or entities which pose the most significant threat to the United States. The investigative priorities of the FCI Program are to:
Prevent or neutralize the foreign acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) technology or equipment;
Prevent the penetration of the U.S. Intelligence Community;
Prevent the penetration of U.S. Government agencies or contractors;
Prevent the compromise of U.S. Critical National Assets; and
Conduct aggressive counterintelligence operations focusing on those countries that constitute the most significant threat to U.S. Strategic interests.
Counterterrorism Division The Counterterrorism Division was established to oversee the following priorities:
To detect, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist sleeper cells in the United States before they act;
To identify and prevent acts of terrorism by individuals with a terrorist agenda acting alone;
To detect, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist support networks, including financial support networks;
To enhance our capability to quickly ascertain the reliability, implications, and details of terrorist threats and to improve our capacity to disseminate threat-related information to local, state, and federal agencies, and to the private sector as needed; and
To enhance our overall contribution to the U.S. Intelligence Community and to senior policy makers in government by providing timely and accurate in-depth analysis of the terrorist threats and other information of value on an on-going basis.
Criminal Investigative Division The Criminal Investigative Division (CID) coordinates, manages, and directs investigative programs focused on financial crime, violent crime, organized crime, public corruption, violation of individual civil rights, drug related crime, and informant matters associated with these investigative areas. The CID guides the investigative efforts of field offices against criminal enterprises and individual federal crimes in the continental and territorial United States, as well as internationally.
Cyber Division
The Cyber Division identifies and neutralizes the most significant individuals or groups conducting computer intrusions, the dissemination of malicious code, or other computer supported operations. The Cyber Division investigates online predators or groups that sexually exploit and endanger children for personal or financial gain. An operation targeting the United States intellectual property also falls within the scope of the Cyber Division. The Cyber Division neutralizes the most significant perpetrators of Internet fraud.
In part II of our article on becoming an FBI Special Agent we'll tell you about the FBI Academny in Quantico, Virginia.