Talk:Federal Bureau of Investigation

FBI and MI5

An important difference between FBI and MI5 is that MI5 has no police or arrest powers; when required, they go to a police organization. There is a continuing debate on whether or not an organization, whose root culture is law enforcement, is a workable model for current domestic security. I can make arguments either way, but it's not a clear cut issue. Howard C. Berkowitz 19:43, 24 July 2008 (CDT)

Yes, but is it also not the fact that each state has its own jurisdiction that makes a federal police necessary? The UK has only one police and one set of laws, I seem to recall. Johan A. Förberg 22:25, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

That sounds reasonable to me, and fits with the situation in Germany. --Daniel Mietchen 22:28, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Would that the United States had only one federal police force; there are many, with different missions. At one point, when I lived in the District of Columbia, there were 23 different organizations with powers of arrest, one being the Metropolitan Police, another being the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority police and the rest being federal. Some were restricted to certain areas, such as the Capitol Police, Park Police, or Library of Congress Police. Others, such as the Armed Forces Police, had jurisdiction only over certain people. Nevertheless, besides the FBI, consider the Drug Enforcement Administration; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Secret Service; Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service, etc., as truly national organizations. Howard C. Berkowitz 03:37, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Wow, it must be hard to keep track of them all? Which one do you call when you need the police to come? Do you start at the top of the list and progress alphabetically? :) Johan A. Förberg 10:04, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Start with the police organizations keeping track. After a gunfight, with fatalities on both sides, between FBI agents pretending to be criminals and Metropolitan Police detectives pretending to be criminals, DC set up an interagency center to keep track of operations -- and establish a "friend" color of the day for armbands and hats.

For most matters, however, you still want the local police. Many of the national organizations are specialist, so either the locals might call them, they become involved for specific events (e.g., the FBI for kidnapping or bank robbery), or they also may have a regulatory component (e.g., DEA tracks legal prescribing and issues licenses as well as looks for illegal drugs)

The U.S. isn't unique, with a physically large country, in having multiple levels -- the jurisdiction of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is fascinating. Howard C. Berkowitz 14:57, 8 August 2010 (UTC)