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 58