Our People and Capabilities
Our People and Capabilities
 |
|
|
Since crime scenes can be anywhere, |
Our people in Louisville 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 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 Louisville, we have two eight-member Evidence Response Teams made up of special agents and support personnel 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 scenes, gather fingerprints, analyze blood stains and spatters, determine bullet trajectories, recover DNA, gather and process the smallest of clues, and more. The teams coordinate with the FBI Laboratory. Upon request, the teams not only assist local law enforcement, but also provide a free, 40-hour school of evidence collection to any local law enforcement entity.
- Computer forensics: We also 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.
- Tactical support and crisis response: The Louisville Division has a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team staffed by 12 operators, including a senior team leader and two assistant team leaders. SWAT operators are expected to be prepared to resolve crises in rural settings and urban environments, including buildings, aircraft, buses, trains/subways, and maritime targets under a variety of climatic and operational conditions. These types of missions require realistic, rigorous, and ongoing training, a high level of physical fitness, precise shooting ability, and emotional stability. SWAT operators are volunteers, and due to the nature of SWAT operations, they are expected to be mature, self-starting, team-oriented, experienced agents who possess excellent judgment and decision-making capabilities.
- Bomb recovery and analysis: We have three special agent bomb technicians in Louisville 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 improvised explosive devices 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 as well as state and local bomb squads.
- Hazardous materials: We have a 10-member Hazardous Materials Response Team (HMRT) that is trained and equipped to respond to terrorist attacks and criminal incidents involving hazardous materials (chemical, biological, and radiological) in concert with local officials and Weapons of Mass Destruction experts at FBI Headquarters. The HMRT is similar to the Evidence Response Team, but processes crime scenes located in hazardous environments.
- Translation: Our language specialists can translate written documents, audio files, and video recordings in a variety of languages for terrorism, espionage, and criminal cases. They assist in translations from divisions all over the country.
For more information on the FBI and its capabilities, see our About Us webpage.
