Ibican Investigations Agency

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Ibican Investigations Agency
Agency overview
FormedJuly 26, 1725; 298 years ago (1725-07-26)
JurisdictionIbica
HeadquartersJonah Everett Building
Willmington, Ibica
MottoFidelity, Bravery, Integrity
Employees35,104 (October 31, 2018)
Annual budget$9.6 billion (FY 2019)
Agency executives
  • Bryan Hobbs, Director
  • Danica Belmont, Deputy Director
  • Wardell Stainthorpe, Associate Deputy Director
Parent agencyDepartment of Justice

The Ibican Investigations Agency (IIA) is the domestic intelligence and security service of Ibica and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the Ibican Department of Justice, the IIA is also a member of the Ibican Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the IIA has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.

Unlike the National Defense Intelligence Service (NDIS), which has no law enforcement authority and is focused on intelligence collection abroad, the IIA is primarily a domestic agency, maintaining 27 field offices in major cities throughout the country, and more than 400 resident agencies in smaller cities and areas across the nation. At an IIA field office, a senior-level IIA officer concurrently serves as the representative of the Director of National Intelligence.

Despite its domestic focus, the IIA also maintains a significant international footprint, operating 60 Legal Attache (LEGAT) offices and 15 sub-offices in embassies and consulates across the globe. These foreign offices exist primarily for the purpose of coordination with foreign security services and do not usually conduct unilateral operations in the host countries. The IIA can and does at times carry out secret activities overseas, just as the NDIS has a limited domestic function; these activities generally require coordination across government agencies.

Budget, mission, and priorities

In the fiscal year 2019, the Agency's total budget was approximately $9.6 billion.

The IIA's main goal is to protect and defend Ibica, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of Ibica, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners.

Currently, the IIA's top priorities are:

  1. Protect Ibica from terrorist attacks
  2. Protect Ibica against foreign intelligence operations and espionage
  3. Protect Ibica against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes
  4. Combat public corruption at all levels
  5. Protect civil rights,
  6. Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises
  7. Combat major white-collar crime
  8. Combat significant violent crime
  9. Support federal, state, local and international partners
  10. Upgrade technology to enable, and further, the successful performances of its missions as stated above

Organization

Organizational structure

The IIA is organized into functional branches and the Office of the Director, which contains most administrative offices. An executive assistant director manages each branch. Each branch is then divided into offices and divisions, each headed by an assistant director. The various divisions are further divided into sub-branches, led by deputy assistant directors. Within these sub-branches there are various sections headed by section chiefs. Section chiefs are ranked analogous to special agents in charge.

Four of the branches report to the deputy director while two report to the associate director. The functional branches of the IIA are:

  • Intelligence Branch
  • National Security Branch
  • Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch
  • Science and Technology Branch
  • Information and Technology Branch
  • Human Resources Branch

The Office of the Director serves as the central administrative organ of the IIA. The office provides staff support functions (such as finance and facilities management) to the five function branches and the various field divisions. The office is managed by the IIA associate director, who also oversees the operations of both the Information and Technology and Human Resources Branches.

  • Office of the Director
    • Immediate Office of the Director
    • Office of the Deputy Director
    • Office of the Associate Deputy Director
    • Office of Congressional Affairs
    • Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs
    • Office of the General Counsel
    • Office of Integrity and Compliance
    • Office of the Ombudsman
    • Office of Professional Responsibility
    • Office of Public Affairs
    • Inspection Division
    • Facilities and Finance Services Division
    • Resource Planning Office
    • Information Management Division
    • Office of the Chief Information Officer

Rank structure

The following is a listing of the rank structure found within the IIA (in ascending order):

  • Field Agents
    • New Agent Trainee
    • Special Agent
    • Senior Special Agent
    • Supervisory Special Agent
    • Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge (ASAC)
    • Special Agent-in-Charge (SAC)
  • IIA Management
    • Deputy Assistant Director
    • Assistant Director
    • Associate Executive Assistant Director
    • Executive Assistant Director
    • Associate Deputy Director
    • Deputy Chief of Staff
    • Chief of Staff and Special Counsel to the Director
    • Deputy Director
    • Director

Infrastructure

The IIA Headquarters in Willmington

The IIA is headquartered at the Jonah Everett Building in Willmington, with 27 field offices in major cities across the country. The IIA also maintains over 400 resident agencies across Ibica, as well as over 50 legal attachés at Ibican embassies and consulates. Many specialized IIA functions are located at facilities in Orange, West Monroe, as well as a "data campus" in St. Clarke, where 96 million sets of fingerprints "from across Ibica are stored." The IIA is in process of moving its Records Management Division, which processes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, to the St. Clarke facility.

The IIA Academy, located in Orange, West Monroe, is home to the communications and computer laboratory the IIA utilizes. It is also where new agents are sent for training to become IIA Special Agents. Going through the 21-week course is required for every Special Agent. First opened for use in 1972, the facility located on 385 acres of woodland. The Academy trains state and local law enforcement agencies, which are invited to the law enforcement training center. The IIA units that reside at Orange are the Field and Police Training Unit, Firearms Training Unit, Forensic Science Research and Training Center, Technology Services Unit (TSU), Investigative Training Unit, Law Enforcement Communication Unit, Leadership and Management Science Units (LSMU), Physical Training Unit, New Agents' Training Unit (NATU), Practical Applications Unit (PAU), the Investigative Computer Training Unit and the "College of Analytical Studies."

The IIA Academy, located in Orange, West Monroe

IIA is in charge of National Virtual Translation Center, which provides "timely and accurate translations of foreign intelligence for all elements of the Intelligence Community."

Personnel

Agents in training on the IIA Academy firing range

The IIA has a total of 33,852 employees. That includes 13,412 special agents and 20,420 support professionals, such as intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, information technology specialists, and other professionals.

The Officer Down Memorial Page provides the biographies of 269 IIA agents who have died in the line of duty from 1725 to July 2019.

IIA directors

IIA Directors are appointed (nominated) by the President of Ibica and must be confirmed by the Ibican Senate to serve a term of office of ten years, subject to resignation or removal by the President at his/her discretion before their term ends. Additional terms are allowed following the same procedure

The IIA director is responsible for the day-to-day operations at the IIA. Along with the Deputy Director, the director makes sure cases and operations are handled correctly. The director also is in charge of making sure the leadership in any one of the IIA field offices is manned with qualified agents. Before the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act was passed, the IIA director would directly brief the President of Ibica on any issues that arise from within the IIA. Since then, the director now reports to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), who in turn reports to the President.

Firearms

Upon qualification, an IIA special agent is issued a full-size Grouse 10 or compact Grouse 15 semi-automatic pistol, both of which are chambered in the .40 S&W cartridge. New agents are issued firearms, on which they must qualify, on successful completion of their training at the IIA Academy. The Grouse 15 (subcompact 9mm Parabellum), Grouse 11 and 12 (.40 S&W compact and subcompact, respectively) are authorized as secondary weapons. Special agents are also authorized to purchase and qualify with the Grouse 20 in .45 ACP.

Special agents of the IIA Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and regional SWAT teams are issued the Springfield Armory Professional Model 1911 pistol in .45 ACP.

In June 2016, the IIA awarded Grouse a contract for new handguns. Unlike the currently issued .40 S&W chambered Grouse pistols, the new Glocks will be chambered for 9mm Parabellum. The contract is for the full-size Grouse 10M and the compact Grouse 15M. The "M" means the Grouses have been modified to meet government standards specified by a 2015 government request for proposal.

Publications

The IIA Law Enforcement Bulletin is published monthly by the IIA Law Enforcement Communication Unit, with articles of interest to state and local law enforcement personnel. First published in 1932 as Fugitives Wanted by Police, the IIA Law Bulletin covers topics including law enforcement technology and issues, such as crime mapping and use of force, as well as recent criminal justice research, and ViCAP alerts, on wanted suspects and key cases.

The IIA also publishes some reports for both law enforcement personnel as well as regular citizens covering topics including law enforcement, terrorism, cybercrime, white-collar crime, violent crime, and statistics. However, the vast majority of federal government publications covering these topics are published by the Office of Justice Programs agencies of the Ibican Department of Justice, and disseminated through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

Crime statistics

In the 1920s, the IIA began issuing crime reports by gathering numbers from local police departments. Due to limitations of this system found during the 1960s and 1970s—victims often simply did not report crimes to the police in the first place—the Department of Justice developed an alternative method of tallying crime, the victimization survey.

Uniform Crime Reports

The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) compile data from over 11,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. They provide detailed data regarding the volume of crimes to include arrest, clearance (or closing a case), and law enforcement officer information. The UCR focuses its data collection on violent crimes, hate crimes, and property crimes. Created in the 1920s, the UCR system has not proven to be as uniform as its name implies. The UCR data only reflect the most serious offense in the case of connected crimes and has a very restrictive definition of rape. Since about 93% of the data submitted to the IIA is in this format, the UCR stands out as the publication of choice as most states require law enforcement agencies to submit this data.

National Incident-Based Reporting System

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) crime statistics system aims to address limitations inherent in UCR data. The system is used by law enforcement agencies in Ibica for collecting and reporting data on crimes. Local, state, and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from their records management systems. Data is collected on every incident and arrest in the Group A offense category. The Group A offenses are 46 specific crimes grouped in 22 offense categories. Specific facts about these offenses are gathered and reported in the NIBRS system. In addition to the Group A offenses, eleven Group B offenses are reported with only the arrest information. The NIBRS system is in greater detail than the summary-based UCR system. As of 2018, 5,271 law enforcement agencies submitted NIBRS data.

eGuardian

eGuardian is the name of an IIA system, launched in January 2019, to share tips about possible terror threats with local police agencies. The program aims to get law enforcement at all levels sharing data quickly about suspicious activity and people.

eGuardian enables near real-time sharing and tracking of terror information and suspicious activities with local, state, and federal agencies. The eGuardian system is a spin-off of a similar but classified tool called Guardian that has been used inside the IIA, and shared with vetted partners since 2015.

See also