Source: United States Department of Justice News
The Department of Justice announced today criminal charges against 138 defendants, including 42 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals, in 31 federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes that resulted in approximately $1.4 billion in alleged losses.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News
Washington, D.C.
Opening Statement (Remarks as Delivered)
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Grassley, and members of the committee.
On behalf of the entire FBI, I want to begin by saying to the brave women who testified here this morning—Ms. Biles, Ms. Maroney, Ms. Nichols, and Ms. Raisman—and I gather there were some others here today who were among the many who Nasser hurt, I’m deeply and profoundly sorry to each and every one of you. I’m sorry for what you and your families have been through. I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again. And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in in 2015 and failed.
And that’s inexcusable. It never should have happened. And we’re doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.
Now before I became FBI Director, I was generally familiar with the Nassar story, shortly after his arrest in 2016. And I remember even then being appalled that there were so many people who had failed to do their jobs and keep these young women safe from that predator. But after I became FBI Director, when I learned that there were people at the FBI who had also failed these women, I was heartsick and furious. I immediately ordered a special review by our Inspection Division to try to get to the bottom of it. That review led in part to the Inspector General’s own review, and I’m grateful to Inspector General Horowitz for his team’s extensive and independent work.
I want to be crystal clear: The actions—and inaction—of the FBI employees detailed in this report are totally unacceptable. These individuals betrayed the core duty that they have of protecting people. They failed to protect young women and girls from abuse.
The work we do, certainly, is often complicated and uncertain. And we’re never going to be perfect. But the kinds of fundamental errors that were made in this case in 2015 and 2016 should never have happened. Period. And as long as I’m FBI Director, I’m committed to doing everything in my power to make sure they never happen again.
The FBI cannot carry out its vital mission of protecting the American people without trust. And in this case, FBI agents, certain FBI agents, broke that trust—repeatedly and inexcusably. And to pretend otherwise would be yet one more insult to the survivors.
Failures like the ones that happened in this case threaten the very confidence we rely on every day to keep people safe. So, I want to make sure the public knows that the reprehensible conduct reflected in this report is not representative of the work that I see from our 37,000 folks every day. The actions instead of the agents described in this report are a discredit to all those men and women who do the job the right way, with uncompromising integrity—the way the American people rightly expect and deserve.
Throughout my career as a prosecutor and now at the Bureau, I have found that the agents and officers who investigate crimes against children and sex crimes are among the most compassionate and fiercely dedicated out there. And I suspect a number of you on the committee have had the same experience on your end. And I’m grateful to the women who came forward today so that I can say to everyone: There is no more important work in law enforcement than helping victims of abuse. It’s work that’s got to get done right, every single time.
It is essential that we do everything we can to ensure that victims continue to come forward with confidence that their reports are going to be thoroughly and aggressively investigated. A big part of that is accountability and holding our folks to the highest standard our work requires.
When I received the Inspector General’s report and saw that the supervisory special agent in Indianapolis had failed to carry out even the most basic parts of the job, I immediately made sure he was no longer performing the functions of an agent. And I can now tell you, that individual no longer works for the FBI—in any capacity.
As for the former Indianapolis special agent in charge, the descriptions of his behavior also reflect violations of the FBI’s longstanding code of conduct and the ethical obligations for all FBI employees—especially senior officials. Now that individual has been gone from the Bureau for about three and a half years, having retired in January 2018, before any review launched. And I will say it’s extremely frustrating that we’re left with little disciplinary recourse when people retire before their cases can be adjudicated. But let me be clear, people who engage in that kind of gross misconduct have no place in the FBI.
I can also assure you the FBI’s response is not limited to dealing with those who failed so profoundly back in 2015.
To make sure that something like this never happens again, we’ve already begun fully implementing all of the Inspector General’s recommendations. That includes strengthening our policies and procedures, strengthening our training to firmly underscore the critical importance of thoroughly and expeditiously responding to all allegations of sexual assault or abuse—because, as I said a moment ago, the American people are counting on us to get this done right, every time.
And, finally, I’d like to make a promise to the women who appeared here today and to all victims of abuse: I’m not interested in simply addressing this wrong and moving on. It’s my commitment to you that I and my entire senior leadership team are going to make damn sure everybody at the FBI remembers what happened here—in heartbreaking detail. We need to remember the pain that occurred when our folks failed to do their jobs. We need to study it. We need to learn from it. That’s the best way I know to make sure this devastating tragedy is never repeated.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Grassley, and members of the committee, for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to your questions.
Good morning, Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Grassley, and members of the committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) report of its Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Handling of Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Former USA Gymnastic Physician Lawrence Gerard Nassar. I want to make clear at the outset that the actions and inaction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) employees in 2015 and 2016 described in the report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization and the values we hold dear. I want to offer my apologies, sympathy, and support to the survivors and their families.
The FBI fully accepts the OIG’s recommendations and has already begun implementing corrective actions in response to them, to ensure the failures described in the report never happen again. Our Office of Professional Responsibility is reviewing the OIG’s findings to adjudicate appropriate discipline for any current FBI employees who engaged in misconduct.
We are enhancing our policies, procedures, and training to ensure that serious allegations of abuse are treated with the utmost urgency and care.
First, the FBI is changing policy and practice related to the handling of reports of sexual abuse and sexual assault. The FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) is being updated to clarify the documentation and retention requirements for information regarding sexual abuse and sexual assault received prior to the opening of an investigation or prior to a determination that further investigative activity is warranted. The relevant section of the DIOG is being modified to mandate a 30-day recurrent review period for this type of information. Finally, we are adding policy language to emphasize that supervisors may not approve documentation that they drafted themselves.
Second, to enhance accountability, we are incorporating new language and documentation requirements into the DIOG for allegations of crimes against children to ensure that such complaints are handled expediently. Recognizing that coordination among law enforcement agencies is essential, these improvements will strengthen information dissemination practices to our partners. We are also implementing improvements related to transferring complaints and investigations between field offices when they involve allegations of crimes against children, to ensure that allegations like the ones against Nassar are not mishandled in the future.
Third, the FBI’s Victim Services Division has thoroughly reviewed the report and is taking steps to ensure that our support of victims and survivors is robust and reflective of the critical obligation to care for individuals who have been traumatized, abused, and victimized. The FBI is updating the DIOG to permit telephonic interviews of minor victims only in limited, exigent circumstances. The FBI has already issued an updated policy guide for handling matters related to victims, including child victims or individuals who were minors at the time of the alleged criminal activity.
With respect to training, the FBI has updated its mandatory annual training to remind all FBI personnel of their obligation to report child abuse. In addition, the FBI developed new mandatory supervisor training for all Headquarters and field supervisors who manage investigations related to crimes against children, and is also creating new training for investigative personnel specific to this type of crime that focuses on, among other topics, thoroughness and urgency.
In implementing these improvements, I want to emphasize that we will not forget the victims who suffered abuse and mistreatment because of missed opportunities to disrupt Nassar’s criminal behavior before his November 2016 arrest. Protecting the American people is the FBI’s highest priority. We will continue to make improvements and take steps to make sure that we are fulfilling that critical mission.
Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Grassley, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I am happy to answer any questions you might have.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News
Remarks prepared for delivery.
Thank you for the introduction, Cynthia, and thank you for inviting me to speak to IACP once again. Obviously, our hearts go out to everyone affected by Hurricane Ida—especially our colleagues in law enforcement and emergency response. And I’m grateful to everyone at IACP for pivoting so quickly and making it possible for us to meet virtually.
In our line of work, confronting and adapting to the unexpected is part of the job. Never was that more true than 20 years ago today—September 11, 2001 was one of the darkest days our nation has ever faced.
Just this morning I was in New York for the memorial ceremony, where family and friends read aloud the names of the nearly 3,000 innocent lives lost that day. Among them were more than 400 first responders—including more than 70 law enforcement officers. The FBI lost two of our own that day: Special Agent Lenny Hatton and former Special Agent John O’Neill. That day, Lenny and John and hundreds more heroic men and women did what first responders always do: They put others before themselves and did whatever it took to rescue people and save lives.
On this solemn anniversary, we resolve once more to “never forget”: to never forget the lives we lost on 9/11, to never forget the colleagues we’ve lost to 9/11-related illnesses since then, and to never forget the incredible bravery and sacrifices of our police, firefighters, and emergency personnel.
But there’s one more thing I know you’ll agree we should never forget—the spirit of unity and shared purpose that brought our nation together on September 12 and in the weeks and months that followed.
We in law enforcement and intelligence also felt that incredible spirit of solidarity in those days after 9/11. We’d always known that partnerships were important in our profession—but after that day, we realized they were something we couldn’t function without. To prevent more 9/11s, we knew we had to build even stronger partnerships, work together even more closely, and share information even more seamlessly.
We’ve spent the last 20 years doing just that, together. And the changes we’ve made and the hard work we’ve done over those two decades have helped keep our country safe. That’s something we should all be proud of.
Still, we can never rest on our laurels, because the threats keep shifting, and the challenges keep coming. So this afternoon, I want to talk to you about some of those challenges—and why the deeper partnerships we forged in the fires of 9/11 are so critical to confronting the threats we’re up against today.
Lessons Learned
Twenty years ago, 9/11 forced those of us in law enforcement and intelligence to take a hard look at ourselves. At the FBI, we asked ourselves—what did we miss? What could we have done better to stop the attack before it happened?
Because of that terrible day, the Bureau transformed itself in ways that have made us stronger and better—and our country safer. And we couldn’t have done it without your help.
We became an intelligence-driven, national security and law enforcement organization—one that collects, uses, and shares intelligence in everything we do. We developed new capabilities to combat the terrorist threat. And we changed our focus from investigating terrorist plots and attacks after the fact, to stopping them before they occur.
We built more integral partnerships with our law enforcement and intelligence community colleagues—starting by expanding and strengthening our task forces. They’ve grown, in fact, thrived in collaboration with hundreds of your departments nationwide, as we continue the critical work of protecting our country in a post-9/11 world. And in field office after field office, I see and hear how seamlessly our task force officers and agents work together.
Time and time again, when we’ve disrupted would-be terrorists before they strike; those cases have been driven by your frontline observations and your eagerness to share that reporting. That’s why our partnerships remain paramount in the fight against terrorism. And that includes our partnerships with community leaders, which we’ve also worked hard to improve since 9/11.
September 11 also taught us painful yet crucial lessons about the need to avoid complacency, and the need to keep innovating—because, as 19 hijackers armed with nothing more than box cutters showed us, the bad guys never stop innovating.
All these years later, the FBI still feels the ripple effects of the evolution in how we tackle our work. And not just in counterterrorism. We’ve applied the lessons we learned from 9/11 to every FBI program and every investigation, in every community we serve.
Current Terrorism Threat Picture
Of course, even as we all evolved in how we combat terrorism, the terrorist threat itself evolved as well.
Two decades after 9/11, we still face threats from al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist groups that want to carry out large-scale attacks here in the United States and around the world. Some of those groups, like ISIS, use social media both to spread propaganda and to recruit and inspire followers to attack wherever they can, in whatever way they can. We also continue to track state-associated groups, like Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that pose threats both at home and abroad.
But we also know that today’s terror threat is different from what it was 20 years ago.
Today, the greatest terrorist threat we face in the U.S. is from lone actors. These include not only homegrown violent extremists, who take inspiration from foreign terror groups and ideologies, but also domestic violent extremists—especially racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, and anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists. Far too often, we’re seeing people resort to violence to advance their ideological, political, or social goals. That’s why, throughout the last year, the FBI has significantly surged resources to our increasing number of domestic terrorism investigations.
Bottom line: 20 years after 9/11, preventing terrorist attacks remains the FBI’s top priority—now and for the foreseeable future.
Violent Crime Surge
But even as we counter the terrorism threat, we’re staying laser focused on violent crime in our cities and communities. Mass shootings, gun violence, homicides, and aggravated assaults are all occurring at an appalling rate across the country, along with an uptick in reported hate crimes.
Today’s violent crime situation is hellishly challenging—and for the Americans caught in the crosshairs of this surge in violent crime, it’s just plain hell.
Like in Louisville, where homicides went up 92% in 2020—and are on pace this year to eclipse that, with more than 20 of those murder victims innocent children. Or in Dallas, or Milwaukee, where aggravated assaults are up—with Milwaukee, in particular, on track to surpass their 2020 rates for homicides, shootings, and carjackings, all by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, gangs in places like Memphis, Louisville, Chicago, and Oklahoma City are establishing narcotics pipelines to traffic heroin and other drugs throughout the Midwest and South. And in Phoenix, local gangs are working with transnational organized crime groups, helping them traffic people, drugs, and firearms throughout the Southwest.
Everyone listening to me knows all too well that the violent crime surge in our country is real and growing. It’s taking the lives of too many innocent people, tearing apart too many communities, and denying too many Americans their basic right to feel safe in their own homes and neighborhoods.
Now I realize I’m preaching to the choir—because we all know that at all levels of government, our most fundamental duty is to safeguard people’s right to live without fear of violence. To meet this duty, we in the FBI know we’ve got to stand in lockstep with our law enforcement partners, now more than ever. And I can assure you we’re using all of our tools and working strategically with our partners to face the violent crime surge head-on.
FBI Resources to Tackle Violent Crime
Across the country, we’re determined to tackle violent crime together through our FBI Violent Crime, Safe Streets, and Safe Trails task forces. Just last year, our Safe Streets Task Forces made more than 6,000 arrests, seized more than 4,000 guns, and dismantled 80 violent gangs across the country.
To build on those task force efforts, in the coming months, the FBI will deploy new rapid response teams to some of the places hardest hit by the increased violence. We’ll be sending agents and intelligence analysts, surging resources and leveraging the intelligence we gather from violent crime investigations to help crack down on violent gangs and disrupt multi-state criminal enterprises.
As we confront the massive rise in violent crime, at the FBI it’s all hands on deck—with every part of the Bureau, not just our violent crime task forces, sharing intelligence and resources to help our state, local, and tribal partners.
The FBI Lab is providing forensic analysis and testimony, shooting incident reconstruction, and support for searches of the 20 million DNA profiles in our National DNA Database.
The FBI-led National Gang Intelligence Center is supporting investigations with timely information on gang migration and criminal activity.
Our CJIS Division is working 24/7 to provide crucial data through systems like NCIC, NICS, and Next Generation Identification.
Our Critical Incident Response Group is deploying command post operations, tactical response, crisis negotiation, and behavioral analysis.
And our Victim Services Division is standing by to provide operational and victim support in crisis and mass-casualty events.
In all these ways and scores more, you can count on the entire FBI to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in the fight against violent crime.
The recent violent crime surge is a big challenge for all of us, and the way we’ll meet it is with the same intelligence-driven, partnership-grounded approach that we’ve used successfully against the terrorist threat since 9/11.
Threats to Law Enforcement
Unfortunately, it’s not just dangerous out there for the people we protect and serve; it’s also dangerous for our officers, agents, and deputies. I want to sound the alarm again about another kind of emergency—one that threatens the very people Americans rely on to keep them safe.
Over the past year, we’ve seen a surge of violence against the law enforcement community. In just the first eight months of this year, 50 law enforcement officers have been feloniously killed on the job in our country—that’s more than in all of 2020. Let me say that again, there have been 50 officers murdered this year while doing their job to keep their communities safe.
I know some of you are all too familiar with the pain of losing your own in the line of duty. We are, too. Earlier this year two of our special agents, Laura Schwartzenberger and Dan Alfin, were shot and killed while serving a search warrant in Florida. And in July, one of our longtime task force officers, Detective Greg Ferency of the Terre Haute, Indiana, Police Department, was shot and killed in an ambush right outside one of our offices. Three of our own, murdered in just a few months.
As I never tire of telling people, it takes an incredibly special person to put his or her life on the line for a total stranger, day after day. When I started this job a little over four years ago, I made a point to know when any officer is murdered in the line of duty, so I can call the chief or sheriff of that department to offer the FBI’s condolences and support.
Since August 2017, I’ve made more than 200 of those calls.
Enough is enough. As a country, we cannot blind ourselves to the sacrifices that law enforcement officers make every day. All of us—their law enforcement colleagues and the citizens they died protecting—owe these dedicated public servants a debt of gratitude.
Mental Health
Given all we’re up against, it’s no wonder that many of your officers feel beleaguered, underappreciated, and under siege. Which is why I want to turn to an issue that’s sometimes hard to discuss, but vital to address—and that’s the mental health and well-being of our people.
Our officers and agents offer a lot of the best humanity has to offer. Courage. Selflessness. Honor. But to do their jobs, they have to confront the worst that humanity has to offer.
That kind of ongoing stress and pressure is a lot of weight to carry, day after day. It’s likely one of the reasons suicides have become an epidemic in law enforcement—and hardly any agency is immune. Last year, there were 174 officer suicides in our country.
We need to figure out exactly what’s going on. That’s why the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program is establishing a new data collection effort to better understand and prevent suicides among current and former law enforcement officers. Agencies can submit information about their officers who have attempted or died by suicide—and getting that information from all of you and the rest of our partners is essential.
Because when it launches next year, UCR’s collection will include data on the circumstance and events before each suicide and attempt. The results—that intelligence—will be crucial to understanding the problem and finding solutions before it is too late.
But even more importantly, just as we do in every other battle, we need to draw on our partnerships. In this case, that means being the best possible partner to colleagues who are hurting and getting rid of the stigma that stops folks from seeking help.
These aren’t 9-to-5 jobs with 9-to-5 pressures. So we need to tell our people it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to admit that—because that’s not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of real strength. And we shouldn’t wait. Taking care of ourselves and one another should be an all-the-time thing, not just something we think about when things become unbearable.
We want all our people around for the long haul—the country needs them around for the long haul—so let’s make sure we’re getting them the help they need, and let them know we’re going to stand beside them, every step of the way.
Our Work: The Right Thing in the Right Way
Since becoming FBI Director, I’ve tried to drive home the importance of always doing the right thing, in the right way. The 20th anniversary of 9/11 is a fitting reminder of why that’s so important.
9/11 showed us just how much is on the line in our work, how we’re always just one attack away from a tragedy will change people’s lives forever. Millions of people we’ll never know are counting on us to do our jobs well—to get it right.
After 9/11, appreciation for law enforcement and our fellow first responders was near-universal. Folks understood that our work was about doing the right thing, and they recognized the nobility of our mission. A rising generation saw that, and as a result, scores of young people chose to pursue public service, including in law enforcement.
Twenty years later, we have fewer and fewer people who either worked for us during 9/11 or joined our ranks because of 9/11. It sounds hard to believe, but we now have agents and analysts joining the FBI who were only in elementary school when the 9/11 attacks happened—and in a few years we’ll be hiring folks who weren’t even alive on that fateful day. So we need to make a special effort to ensure that September 11 and its lessons don’t become some historical footnote—especially in the current environment, when the negativity surrounding law enforcement has made recruiting tough for so many departments.
There’s no question that law enforcement remains a noble profession. And I truly believe that—although sometimes it may not seem like it—folks still recognize and appreciate the sacrifices our people make.
As a new generation enters our ranks, it falls on those of us who lived through the post-9/11 transformation of our work to show them why it’s so crucial to do things the right way. That takes a lot when your work is as hard and consequential as ours is—from precision and rigor, to uncompromising integrity, to following the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it. It also means setting aside concerns about who gets credit, and focusing on impact.
We’ve all seen firsthand how the shift away from turf battles and stove-piping, to sharing intelligence and strengthening our partnerships, gets results that keep people safer. And now the young men and women in our departments, who listen to and learn from us, don’t know any other way than that post-9/11 shoulder-to-shoulder approach.
That’s how it should be. That’s how it needs to be. 9/11 should always remind us that we can’t go back to the old ways. Because when we work in the right way, together—when we combine our unique capabilities and authorities, our strengths and assets—we’re so much stronger than when we do the job alone.
Conclusion
I began today by recalling the solidarity and spirit of September 12, and the enduring resilience of this country and of our law enforcement family. There’s perhaps no better symbol of that resilience than the Survivor Tree, which stands as part of the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.
A month after the terrorist attacks, recovery workers discovered a Callery pear tree buried in the rubble of the Twin Towers. It was badly damaged, its roots snapped, and its branches broken and burned. The tree was dug up from the ruins and placed in the care of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. They replanted it in a park in the Bronx, where it wasn’t expected to survive.
But over the years, that pear tree recovered. It was returned to the 9/11 Memorial back in 2010. Today, smooth limbs extend from the tree’s gnarled stumps, clearly showing the line between the tree’s past and present—before 9/11 and after. It stands at the memorial as a living reminder of our country’s enduring spirit and resilience.
Like that tree, our law enforcement family has its own clear line in our history—before 9/11 and after. We learned hard lessons from that terrible day. And we’ve experienced our own rebirth—one that has helped us to better protect all the people who are counting on us.
Thank you all for your leadership, and your partnership with the FBI. And thanks for listening to me today.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News
Remarks prepared for delivery.
Good morning. It’s an honor to be here with all of you this morning.
During my first year as Director, back in 2017, I joined the TSC in commemorating the 16th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. In the blink of an eye, four more years have passed, and it’s hard to believe that tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of that tragic day. I will never forget being with former Director Mueller and then-Attorney General Ashcroft in SIOC on the day of the attacks.
The place was packed to capacity, with people spilling out of every corner, and more joining by the minute—all trying to help, trying to comprehend the horror that was unfolding. And though it was a chaotic and shocking time, it was also a time of incredible solidarity. Because every single person there—at that very moment—had just one purpose. To make sure it never, ever happened again. To keep people we will never know, and families we will never meet, safe from harm. I was humbled and inspired by that feeling then, and I still am to this day.
Since stepping into this role, I’ve had the somber privilege of visiting each site—the Pentagon, Shanksville, and Ground Zero itself several times. And while visiting the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York one of those times, I observed—like many do who spend time there—a quote from the ancient Roman poet, Virgil, displayed prominently on a wall. It reads, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”
Two decades after one of the darkest days in this nation’s history, the memory is as strong as ever. We remember September 11 as if it were yesterday. And we remember every life lost. Special Agents Lenny Hatton and John O’Neill were two of those we lost that day. And in the last few years, painful remnants of that day continue, as we’ve also sadly lost other members of our FBI family to 9/11-related illnesses. I’ve had the honor of speaking with them during their final days, and at their funerals with their loved ones and family. Those moments have been some of the most sobering over the past four years, but also the most reverent. Because on behalf of the entire FBI, I was able to one more time thank them for their selflessness and service to our country.
Each life lost is a stark reminder that the long-term effects of the recovery work after September 11 are still present, even 20 years later. And as we stand here today, some are still suffering, especially our partners and first responders, who’ve been hit the hardest. They’ve lost colleagues and friends over the years too, all of them were extraordinary men and women who answered the call of duty, no matter the cost.
Over the course of the past two decades, we’ve learned the full extent of the sacrifices that hundreds of first responders made in the months after the attacks. Sacrifices and lives lost that we must never—and will never—allow to be forgotten,
You may have heard me say before that for a time after the attacks—when the shock and sorrow were still so very raw—we lived in a haze of days that seemed like September 12, over and over again. We kept asking ourselves, “What could we have done better? What should we have done better?” But we soon realized that looking back with regret wasn’t helpful. Under Director Mueller’s leadership, the FBI adopted a mentality of doing everything we could—and still can—to make sure we never have to ask the question, “What should we have done?” again. We began to live as if every day were September 10. And we’re still living that way today. Every day, we wake up asking ourselves, “What do we need to do to keep people safe today, and tomorrow, and the day after that?”
Because of September 11, the FBI transformed itself in ways that have made us better able to carry out our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. We became an intelligence-based national security and law enforcement organization—one that collects, uses, and shares intelligence in everything we do, not just in counterterrorism. We developed new capabilities to combat the terrorist threat, and we changed our focus from investigating terrorist plots and attacks after the fact, to stopping them before they occur. And we forged deeper, stronger partnerships with our colleagues in law enforcement and the intelligence community, and with our international counterparts.
All of these transformations have proven critical over the past two decades and will remain critical. As the tragic loss of 13 brave American service members and nearly 200 Afghans in Kabul painfully reminds us, foreign terrorist groups like ISIS still seek to carry out large-scale attacks against us.
For me, personally, September 11 was the single most impactful experience in my career. I think anyone working at the DOJ or the FBI that day would say the same.
When I became Director, I realized that the FBI was made up of some folks who, like me, remember exactly what they were doing at the FBI that day. Then there were those motivated by September 11 to join the FBI. But then there were those who were only kids when the attacks happened. And now, we’ve started hiring interns who weren’t even born when 9/11 happened. That’s why it’s so important that we take the time to remember this day. And why we now send all new agents and analysts to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York. So that they never forget how that day transformed our nation. And how it transformed the FBI.
Today we are stronger, we are smarter, and we are better able to confront the threats we face now and the ones we can’t see yet. And while those threats have evolved a lot in 20 years, the men and women of the FBI—and our scores of law enforcement and intelligence partners—have never stopped working to keep the American people safe from another attack. And I can’t thank all of you for that enough. I go to sleep at night much easier knowing you’re on the job, keeping watch over the citizens we serve.
In a few minutes, we’ll observe a moment of silence. It’s a moment to remember the heartbreak of that dark day. To remember those we lost as a nation. And, for those of us in the FBI, it’s a moment to reflect on why we do this work. And who we do this work for.
The American people are counting on us. They’re counting on us to bring justice to victims of terrorism and crime, and to their families. They’re counting on us to make sure that others never have to experience what they’ve gone through. Thank you for being there when they’re counting on you, every single day. And thank you for your selfless dedication to the American people. I’m honored and humbled to serve alongside you.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News
In June 2020, the federal government enacted the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC) Act, which aims to help agencies better understand and prevent suicides among current and former law enforcement officers. The law requires the FBI to collect information about officers who attempt or die by suicide.
Because the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division already houses other law enforcement data collections in its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the FBI UCR Program established and manages the LESDC.
The Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act
As part of the LESDC, the FBI will collect the following information for each current or former law enforcement officer who attempts or dies by suicide, including:
The law specifies timeframes by which the FBI will establish the LESDC and publish an annual report. To meet these goals, the FBI UCR Program began developing the LESDC and in mid-2022 will publish the first annual report on the FBI’s website.
In keeping with the FBI UCR Program’s other data collections, LESDC reports will not contain information that directly identifies any individuals. Only law enforcement agencies (as defined by the LESDC Act) can submit information.
This collection differs from other UCR data collections by using an expanded definition of law enforcement agency and law enforcement officer, to include corrections employees, 911 operators, judges, and prosecutors.
As with all UCR data collections, submissions to the collection remain voluntary, unless state-specific legislation mandates collection and reporting of incidents as defined within the law.
Contributing Data to LESDC
The collection will open for submissions by January 1, 2022. To contribute data to the LESDC, law enforcement agency personnel must first obtain LEEP authorization and access. LEEP accounts are available to personnel affiliated with the criminal justice system.
To apply for a LEEP account, go to cjis.gov and complete the online application. After obtaining LEEP access, agency personnel must then apply for access to the UCR Collection of Law Enforcement and Crime Tool, which is where the LESDC resides.
For more information about the LESDC, call (304) 625-5370 or email LESDC@fbi.gov.
Resources