by Chris Hinkle, FBI SSA Retired

It would be an understatement to say the FBI is in need of significant reform.  Reform necessary to bring the agency back within the guardrails of the U.S. Constitution and restore the confidence of the American people.  The next FBI Director will have to quickly make significant changes while balancing them with its ongoing criminal and national security missions.

Here are some January 20, 2025 recommendations for the next FBI Director:

                Re-establish the U.S. Constitution as its Cornerstone.  The number one priority and literally the one thing all FBI Agents swear an oath to do is defend the U.S. Constitutional Liberties of the citizens.  The FBI has stepped well outside the its oath with the targeting of parents at school boards, coercing and directing financial institutions to violate bank secrecy laws, and surreptitiously monitoring citizens exercising their rights without predication or due process.

                The FBI’s mission should begin with the U.S. Constitution as its foundation.  Agents must demonstrate an understanding of the U.S. Constitution and how their actions support or may infringe on liberties.  It should also be prominent in the hiring process, press conferences, and at every level of training at the FBI Academy from investigative courses to firearms.  It is that important.

                Re-establish the FBI Core Values and Standards.  Current FBI Core Values are Respect, Integrity, Accountability, Leadership, Compassion, Fairness, Rigorous Obedience to the Constitution, and Diversity.  Diversity was added as a Core Value in 2015 during the expansion of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) within the FBI.  The first six values are not dependent on a person’s immutable characteristics (race, gender) where Diversity is dependent.  The FBI should follow the lead of the University of Florida and eliminate any DEI offices, positions, and programs.  Diversity is not a “value” and should be removed from the list of FBI Core Values. 

                Prioritization of immutable characteristics in hiring for the sake of increasing numbers within that characteristic is in itself, discriminatory.  It’s also counter to the FBI’s Civil Rights mission.  For example, the FBI has signed on to the “30 by 2030” pledge to advance women in policing.  The FBI provides no demonstrable metric of how this increases the effectiveness of its mission.  It merely points to a website where “experts” state that “gender diversity greatly benefits organizations.”  Actual studies, like those detailed in Dr. John Gentry’s book, Diversity Dysfunction:  The DEI Threat to National Security, factually detail how institutions that embrace DEI are in a constant state of decline.  Hiring practices based on immutable characteristics must end.

                The media is currently full of doorbell camera videos of disheveled looking FBI agents dressed in untucked polo shirts, cargo pants, and hiking boots.  During my tenure, there was a phrase, “When someone shows up at the bank robbery scene and is looking for the person in charge, they are looking for the person in the suit.”  There is no excuse for not professionally looking the part.  Most FBI agents earn an annual salary of over $100K.  Buy a suit.  It will enhance your credibility.

                Reduce FBI Headquarters Senior Executive positions by 50%.  In 1993, then FBI Director Louis Freeh recognized the need to prioritize field office operations over what had become an overstaffed FBI Headquarters.  He eliminated a number of senior executive positions and streamlined the FBI’s chain of command by reducing it to only 12 Divisions which reported directly to him.

                Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, then FBI Director Robert Mueller installed a “top down” approach where FBI Headquarters directed the investigative focus of the field offices.  Additionally, he created new FBI Divisions, filled executive positions from the private sector, and even promoted non-agent support staff to lead investigative divisions traditionally headed by Special Agents.  Mueller then implemented an “FBI Headquarters Staffing Initiative” which robbed the field of experienced agents with virtually no backfill. 

Today, there are over 30 Assistant Director positions supervised by six Executive Assistant Directors (EAD) who report to the Deputy Director and Associate Deputy Director.  Below these Assistant Directors are numerous Senior Executive Scale (SES) Special Agents and support staff.  An objective of the next FBI Director should be to eliminate many of these SES positions by at least 50%.  Those affected can be afforded opportunities to retire, compete for other positions, or transfer to the field.  The FBI must be remade from the field up, not headquarters down.

                FBI Agents Association (FBIAA).  The FBIAA, established in 1981, purports to be a “non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and safeguarding the careers, economic interests, conditions of employment and welfare of FBI Agents and retired FBI Agents.”  However, over the last 15-plus years, it has become political evidenced by its defense of executives on the 7^th floor of FBI Headquarters.  It has been quick to support individuals like fired FBI Director Jim Comey as well as past and current adulation for soon to be former FBI Director Chris Wray.  Yet the FBIAA has been virtually absent in the support and defense of credible FBI whistleblowers. 

A significant complement of the FBIAA are on-board FBI agents who spend anywhere from 25%-75% of their time working on FBIAA matters.  Much of this involves spending time assisting in marketing of the FBIAA and attending meetings and conferences.  That is time spent away from investigating criminal activity, combatting terrorism, and attending training.  The next FBI Director should redirect on-board FBI agents back to primary functions and not provide taxpayer-funded augmentation to the budget of a non-profit such as the FBIAA.

                Transparency.  In addition to the above, transparency would go a long way to restoring the credibility diminished by the actions of Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Kevin Clinesmith, Lisa Page, etc.  Here are a few suggestions to demonstrate the new FBI Director’s commitment to transparency: 

Release the manifesto of the Transgender Domestic Terrorist who killed children at Nashville’s Covenant School.  Release the names from the Jeffrey Epstein Client List.  State when the FBI identified the infamous laptop belonged to Hunter Biden and when it determined it wasn’t the product of “Russian Disinformation.”  Conduct routine press conferences with status updates on the two attempts to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.  When testifying at the Capitol, do not elevate DOJ/FBI Policy above your Constitutional obligations to respond to oversight.  Additionally, do not cloak yourself in the reputations of the rank-and-file in an attempt to equate criticism of your leadership as criticism of them.  It diminishes the well-deserved and great reputation of the overwhelming majority of agents and support staff.

I truly believe the FBI’s best days are in front of it.  Those calling for tearing it down or eliminating it completely are unserious.  Reform is needed.  Not destruction. 

Chris Hinkle is a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent with over 25 years as a Federal Agent.  He is a 9/11 first-responder and led the FBI’s Civil Rights Program in Mississippi.