FBI Atlanta Field Office - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

FBI Atlanta Field Office (also called the Atlanta Division) is a Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

field office located in Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

. The office is just one of 56 field offices and 400 resident agencies located all around the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The Atlanta Division has a wide jurisdiction that includes 159 counties that cover 57,906 square miles.

History

The FBI Atlanta Field Office was formed in 1911 under the control of Special agent Lewis Josiah Baley, who was the first and longest serving head of the field office in its history. He left the field office in 1919 when he was appointed the Chief of the bureau of Investigation. The Atlanta division played a key role in investigating the domestic terrorism case held in Atlanta in 1919. The office also played a role in the investigation on Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century....

1920s and 1930s

The pressing matter of corruption within the Atlanta detention system had arisen once more. J Edgar Hoover, the then FBI director, ordered the division to find evidence of these allegations. They were also told to investigate the prison warden, in which they received reports that he was running the prison in a laid-back manner. A conspiracy was quickly uncovered by Atlanta officers which included bribery for special treatment. The Bureau's 1925 report led to a series of arrests of prison management officers. In the 1920 and 1930s, the office investigated and charged a number of white collar criminals.

Post 9/11 period

In the post September 11 period, The Atlanta office — as with the rest of the Bureau — made terrorism a top priority. In order to prevent more attacks on the United States, the division increased terrorism efforts by expanding the divisions terrorism force, improving the inner machination of the office's information collection methods by initiating the Field Intelligence Group. In the case of Ehsanul Sadequee and Syed Ahmed, two men residing in Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

who had ties to terrorists around the globe, these efforts were put to great use. The division helped investigate the matter. The subsequent investigations of these terrorists unraveled a conspiracy of terrorists in other parts of the United States

Terrorism in the United States

A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, Bosnia and several other countries around the world. At current, the special agent in charge of the FBI Atlanta Field Office is Brian D. Lamkin. Lamkin has held this position since April 2010.

Currently the office handles a number of matters including child pornography

Child pornography

Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...

, health care fraud

Fraud

In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...

, violent prison gangs

Prison gang

Prison gang is a term used to denote any type of gang activity in prisons and correctional facilities. Prison officials and others in law enforcement use the term security threat group or STG...

, drug trafficking and many more areas of crime.

Programs

Joint Terrorism Task Force — this force is a unit of skilled officer comprised local, state and federal law enforcement officers who are put together to combat terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

and investigate cases that are related to terrorism. It is also the responsibility of this task force to provide support and security at special events and proactively identify threats to national security. The task force also works with agents from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency
Georgia Emergency Management Agency
The Georgia Emergency Management Agency or GEMA is the emergency management agency for the U.S. state of Georgia. Its function is similar to that of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in preparing for and responding to disasters, and mitigating potential hazards....

- Homeland Security (GEMA-HS).
Field Intelligence Group — a group of officers who are specially trained to go undercover
Undercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...

and collect and analyze intelligence
Intelligence analysis
Intelligence analysis is the process of taking known information about situations and entities of strategic, operational, or tactical importance, characterizing the known, and, with appropriate statements of probability, the future actions in those situations and by those entities...

. The team was formed after the September 11th attacks.
Major Offender Task Force — This force is responsible for the identification and capture of wanted persons. This force, like the Joint Terrorism Task Force, is made up of local, state and federal agents.

The Atlanta Division has a specially trained Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. This team is among of the most critically acclaimed of its kind. The Atlanta SWAT cooperates closely with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. The members are trained to gain entry into barricaded buildings, breach locks and an array of other tasks. The SWAT team has been involved in the arrests of dangerous criminals, the rescue of hostages and the navigation of rough terrain.

Investigative programs

Computer Analysis and Response Team — A group of trained personnel who locate evidence on a vast group of digital technologies. This team is also responsible for processing evidence for use inside the court of law. CART, as they are sometimes referred as, also assists a number of local, state, national and international law enforcement agencies in crimes such as terrorism, child pornography, crimes of violence, trade secret theft, theft or destruction of intellectual property, etc.
Evidence Response Teams - This group is the branch of the FBI Atlanta Division that handles the gathering and processing of evidence. The ERT is comprised special agents and other persons with special skills. These persons survey crime scenes, take photographs and diagrams, gather fingerprints, analyze blood stains and splatters, determine bullet trajectories, recover DNA, gather and process the smallest of clues. The ERT works closely with FBI Laboratory
FBI Laboratory
The FBI Laboratory is a division within the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation that provides forensic analysis support services to the FBI, as well as to state and local law enforcement agencies free of charge. The lab is currently located at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico,...

.

Jurisdiction

The FBI field office in Atlanta, Georgia has jurisdiction in 14 cities. The investigative arm of the FBI Atlanta Field Office which is located in these jurisdictions are called satellite offices (also called "resident agencies"). The FBI Atlanta has resident agencies in the following cities.

Albany
Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the...
Athens
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
Augusta
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
Columbus
Brunswick, Georgia
Brunswick is the major urban and economic center in southeastern Georgia in the United States. The municipality is located on a harbor near the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 30 miles north of Florida and 70 miles south of South Carolina. Brunswick is bordered on the east by the Atlantic...
Columbus
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
Dalton
Dalton, Georgia
Dalton is a city in Whitfield County, Georgia, United States. It is the county seat of Whitfield County and the principal city of the Dalton, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of both Murray and Whitfield counties. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 33,128...
Dublin
Dublin, Georgia
Dublin is a city in Laurens County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 16,201. The city is the county seat of Laurens County.-History:The original settlement was named after the city Dublin, Ireland....