Our People and Capabilities
Our People and Capabilities
Our people in Dallas possess a mix of talents and experience that enable us to help protect you, your families, and your workplaces from a full range of national security threats and major crime problems.
Our employees include not only special agents, but also a variety of specialized professionals such as intelligence and financial analysts, investigative specialists, support services technicians, language specialists, paralegals, electronics technicians, and security experts.
Our strength lies in our investigations—the very heart of our operations—and in the collection, analysis, and sharing of intelligence that drives and supports those investigations both locally and nationally. In every case, we work to objectively gather the facts and to develop evidence that can stand up in a court of law. To do that, we can interview witnesses, run undercover operations, analyze financial records, map and manage crime scenes, develop informants, make arrests, conduct surveillance, and gather information and intelligence from around the globe. Our cases today are often complex and multi-faceted, involving a range of public and private sector partners and covering multiple jurisdictions.
Among our specialized capabilities:
- Evidence recovery and processing: In Dallas, we have four Evidence Response Teams. Each team is made up of eight special agents and other specialists who are sent to crime scenes to secure the area and exhaustively gather and process physical evidence. Each team member has a forensic specialty and has been extensively trained. They can take photographs, diagram and survey scenes, gather fingerprints, analyze blood stains and splatters, determine bullet trajectories, recover DNA, gather and process the smallest of clues, and more. The teams coordinate with the FBI Laboratory and assist local law enforcement upon request.
- Computer forensics: We have a Computer Analysis and Response Team, or CART, that applies this same evidentiary concept to the digital world. These forensic examiners are experts at retrieving evidence from a vast array of digital devices, at processing that evidence in a way that maintains its integrity for use in court, and at presenting the results of their findings to investigators. The team supports the FBI, other law enforcement agencies, other federal agencies (including members of the intelligence community), and authorized international law enforcement agencies.
The Dallas Division is also home to one of the national Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories (RCFLs) located throughout the United States. These RCFLs are one-stop, full-service forensics laboratories and training centers devoted to the examination of digital evidence in support of law enforcement investigations, such as terrorism, child pornography, crimes of violence, trade secret theft, theft or destruction of intellectual property, financial crime, property crime, Internet crime, and fraud. The North Texas RCFL combines the talents and experience of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers. Its duties include seizing and collecting digital evidence at a crime scene, conducting an impartial examination of submitted computer evidence, and testifying as required.
The Dallas Computer Analysis Response Team and North Texas Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory are two sides of the same coin. CART trains and certifies forensic examiners, and the North Texas RCFL runs the laboratory that CART examiners work in.
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- Tactical support and crisis response:We have a SWAT team (Specialized Weapons and Tactics) that can storm barricaded buildings and vehicles, breach locks and other structures, arrest armed and dangerous criminals, rescue hostages, patrol areas and provide security, navigate tough terrains by climbing and rappelling, use special techniques to stop fleeing cars, and conduct site surveys for special events. The team is highly trained and heavily equipped, with expertise in a variety of weapons, including pistols, assault and sniper rifles, and shotguns.
- Bomb recovery and analysis: We have two special agent bomb technicians in Dallas who can test and render safe a variety of explosive devices. They respond to calls of suspicious packages or objects and are deployed during bombing investigations, often working closely with our Joint Terrorism Task Forces. They gather diagnostic information from the explosives that may be relayed as vital intelligence to local investigators and to the national Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center. Our bomb techs often work and train with local first responders and law enforcement.
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Hazardous materials: We have a HAZMAT team that can respond to terrorist attacks and criminal incidents involving hazardous materials—including chemical, biological, and radiological—working in concert with local officials and with Weapons of Mass Destruction experts at FBI Headquarters.
- Translation: Our group of language specialists can translate written documents and audio files in a variety of languages for terrorism, espionage, and criminal cases. They also join agents on cases, translating during live interviews and even during undercover operations.
For more information on FBI and its capabilities, see our About Us webpage.
