Week Four at Citizens' FBI Academy

 Week four of Citizens’ FBI Academy started out with some “dry” but really necessary material. It was an overview of all the constitutional protections that are afforded to anyone being investigated by the Department of Justice. The FBI has its own attorneys who have the responsibility of keeping the agents “within the lines.” When investigations are done thoroughly AND legally they are referred to by the agents as being done “with class.”

Constitutional Protections

The chief constitutional protections that are afforded to citizens are provided by the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The First Amendment provides for the “Big Five.” These are the right to freedom of speech, religions, assembly, the press and to petition the government. When citizens are asserting their rights to these activities, the role of the FBI is to ensure that they are done in a non-violent way.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. Searching requires a warrant and the seizure of possible evidence requires a warrant as well. The exception to this would be the imminent threat to human life, the threat to flee, or the destruction of evidence. So much of what occurs in this area requires excellent judgment, and there is new case law being written everyday on where this is or isn’t a reasonable expectation of privacy.

The Fifth Amendment covers due process. It goes straight to the heart of what is considered fundamental fairness. A suspect’s Miranda rights go a long way towards ensuring that arrests and interrogations remain fair and above board.
It is a fine art to know when questioning is appropriate or when the scenario suddenly changes and the questioning becomes an interrogation. It is at this point that the interviewee becomes a suspect or person of interest and their right to due process needs to be protected.

FBI Intelligence Program

The next topic to be covered was the FBI’s Intelligence Program. Post-9/11 the FBI experienced a complete paradigm shift. Prior to 9/11 its role was investigatory. Incidents were investigated to determine whether or not federal laws had been broken. Now its role has become far more proactive. Its’ successes are measured by the number of terroristic events that have been prevented! ”Intelligence” is defined as information that if known or discovered could affect a government policy decision. Agents need to discover the “who”, “what”, “why”, “when” and “how” of possible terrorist activity in order to make a full assessment of the threat. For the FBI to become involved, the activity must be local. If there is any evidence of overseas activity, the investigation becomes the purview of the CIA.

The two best tools for intelligence gathering are sources (people) and wires (phone taps.) Frequently the agents are dealing with fragments of material that have to be put together to define a particular threat. When I asked the presenter who makes a good intelligence officer, his response was immediate. That person needs to “think interesting thoughts” and be an excellent writer. So much of what is needed is to have someone with the imagination to make sense of isolated fragments in order to interpret what is happening. If they can’t write and communicate well, this information is never passed on in an understandable way to the people and departments for whom this information is absolutely essential.

Evidence Gathering

The final presentation of the evening discussed evidence gathering and the FBI Emergency Response Team. There are three ERT’s with eight members each. They also have 48 qualified divers for underwater searches. Each team includes a team leader, a photographer, a sketch preparer, evidence gathered, a custodian of the evidence that is recovered and various other specialists.

Evidence most frequently is sent to Quantico for examination although the Minnesota BCA can be used when appropriate. Some of the special circumstances the ERT’s cover are post-blast investigations, large vehicle bomb investigations, major crime scenes, mass disasters, digital evidence collection, forensic anthropology, and advanced photography.

They work with the NTSB on plane crashes and train derailments. They also assisted in all of the mapping related to the 35W bridge collapse. Our classroom presentation was followed by some “hands on” experience collecting evidence. We experimented with multiple ways to get good finger prints including the new “superglue” vapor method.

We used three different methods for determining whether or not blood stains are present: hemastix, phenolpthalein, and luminol. At our last station we made plaster casts of footprints. Because it was “hands on” and practical this was one of my favorite parts so far!