By David Brown
Everyone knows about the “big” federal law enforcement agencies: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshalls. But the Department of Justice, to which those three belong, isn’t the only game in town. In fact, there are dozens of such law enforcement agencies in every sector of government. Here are a few you might not know about.
Company Cops
The Central Intelligence Agency has its own police force called the Security Protective Services. Like everything else associated with the CIA, the SPS exists behind a veil of secrecy. What is known about them comes primarily from job postings. They are responsible for the physical security of CIA facilities and have such specialized divisions as K-9 units, explosive ordnance disposal teams, and a threat management unit responsible for assessing and coordinating threats to “company” compounds. Training runs 12 weeks at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia and is followed by five weeks of specialized CIA training.
Special Agents of the State Department
The Diplomatic Security Service is like the State Department’s hybrid version of the FBI and Secret Service. Special agents for the DSS provide security to the secretary of state; investigate passport fraud; are responsible for cyber security and counter-terrorism as it relates to threats against State Department property and personnel around the world. This obviously includes U.S. embassies abroad, making this a battle-hardened law enforcement agency.
Police with Nuclear Weapons
Nukes in the wild are serious business, and among the swath of agencies and organizations responsible for a weapon’s transportation and physical security is one big commonality: the authorization to shoot people who get in the way. The National Nuclear Security Administration and its parent, the Department of Energy, operate the Office of Secure Transportation, which is responsible for transporting nuclear weapons and material. (They often work with the U.S. Air Force.) The OST generally moves their cargo in, meaning that tractor trailer driving alongside you might be secretly transporting uranium and guarded by men with heavy machine guns. The moral here is to be nice to truck drivers.
On the Representative’s Secret Service
“In a nutshell,” said Michael Spochart of the United States Capitol Police, “the U.S. Capitol Police is to the legislative branch and Capitol Hill what the U.S. Secret Service is to the executive branch and the White House.” While in Washington, members of Congress are protected by the Capitol Police. In congressional districts, the Capitol Police coordinate security services with local police and handle direct threats to representatives. The role of the service expanded after 9/11 when anthrax was mailed to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Two members of the Capitol Police–Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson–were killed when a gunman attacked Capitol Hill in 1998. The men were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Shadow Wolves
There is a federal law enforcement agency called the Shadow Wolves and you do not want them to hunt you down. They are part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and operate along the border in Arizona’s Tohono O’odham Nation. These guys use ancient methods of tracking to find drug runners and aliens in the most inhospitable deserts and mountains in the United States. According to the official Shadow Wolves fact sheet put out by the Department of Homeland Security, “An experienced Shadow Wolf can spot small items snagged on branches, twigs bent or broken, or even a single fiber of cloth or burlap from a sack or bag that could be filled with drugs. They can read faint footprints in the dust and determine when they were made, where they came from and whether or not traffickers are carrying additional weight such as backpacks filled with drugs.”
