AST Digital Magazine August 2017 Digital-Aug | Page 58

Volume 15
rogation, and evidence collection.
August 2017 Edition
That’s why agents and analysts must be ground-
ed in the fundamental principles of ethics and
place the utmost value in protecting the innocent
and upholding the rule of law.
As part of their ethics training, new agent and
analyst trainees make two excursions to the na-
tion’s capital that drive home the importance of
protecting the public and preventing the abuse
of authority.
Today’s special agents and intelligence analysts begin their
first assignments fully prepared for collaborative work in the
field thanks to the Basic Field Training Course launched in
2015.
Agent trainees also receive more than 90 hours
of instruction and practical exercises focused
on tactics, operations planning, cooperating wit-
nesses and informants, physical and electronic
surveillance, undercover operations, and intelli-
gence.
The rigorous academics are vital to the future
success of agent trainees.
They will need to learn the basics of federal law,
the U.S. Constitution, and the legal process.
If agents don’t understand all of the details gov-
erning searches, questions could be raised during
trial about the credibility of recovered evidence.
The intelligence analysts will ultimately graduate
before the agents after 12 weeks at Quantico.
At that point, new agent trainees begin their tacti-
cal training and set their sights on the crooked
criminals and gangs waiting for them in Hogan’s
Alley.
Remembering Why They Serve
FBI agents wield substantial law enforcement
powers, including the ability to make arrests and,
along with analysts, to build a case that can put a
person behind bars.
New agents and intelligence analysts visit the nation’s capital
to view the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum as part of their ethics training
at the FBI Academy.
The first trip, instituted by the Bureau in April
2000, is a specialized tour of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum.
After the tour, agents and analysts talk with mu-
seum representatives about how the Nazis took
power in Germany in 1933 with the help of civil-
ian police and the horrors that can occur when
law enforcement fails to protect and serve with
compassion and fairness.
In a second trip, which was incorporated into FBI
Academy training in August 2014, students visit
the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
The program—put together in partnership with
the Memorial Foundation and the National Park
Service—reminds trainees of past FBI mistakes,
the importance of civil rights for all, and the need
for oversight and accountability.
“Visiting the museum and the memorial was a
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