Bureau Of Investigation History

The formation of the FBI goes back to a group of special agents created in 1908, by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, under President Theodore Roosevelt. It sprung up during the Progressive Era, a time when people supported a crime intervention team and believed government intervention was necessary in this type of society. Congress was also very supportive toward the Attorney General's plan. They enacted a law preventing the Department of Justice from engaging in secret service operatives, giving all of the investigative power to Bonaparte and his team of special agents. On July 26, 1908, Bonaparte ordered his special agents to report to Chief examiner Stanley W. Finch. This force of agents was later named the Bureau of Investigations by
This law made it a violation of state law "to transfer women across state lines for immoral purposes", it also helped the FBI investigate crimes that went across state lines. In 1912, A. Bruce Bielaski became Chief of the Bureau. During this time the number of special agents grew to 300. With the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917,the Bureau of Investigation was ordered by the government to investigate the crimes of espionage, selective service and sabotage. The Bureau also focused its efforts on controlling smuggling and obtaining intelligence around the Mexican border. William J. Flynn, became Chief of the Bureau using the title Director of the Bureau of Investigations. The National Motor Vehicles Theft Act of 1919 was passed during this time, giving the Bureau another passage to prosecute criminals across state
It allowed them to reassign 300 agents from the foreign counterintelligence unit to the violent crimes division. Two major events occurred during this time that questioned the FBI's response to crisis situations. The first happened when an FBI sniper shot the wife of Randall Weaver, who they had been doing surveillance on. Soon later, the FBI responded to a sensitive hostage situation in which 80 persons died. Louis J. Freeh was appointed Director of the FBI in September 1993. During his office, the FBI increased its efforts against white-collar crime, organized crime, terrorism and also expanded the agency to 21 foreign offices. With the introduction of the internet into households, the FBI had to create another division to control cyber crime. It created the Computers Investigations and Infrastructure Threat Assessment Center (CITAC). Between 1993 and 2001 the FBI's budget grew by ore than $1.27