The
FBI works around the globe to combat the most dangerous
criminal and security threats facing our country—from
international and domestic terrorists to spies on U.S.
soil…from cyber villains to corrupt government
officials…from mobsters to violent street gangs…from
child predators to serial killers.
We currently have jurisdiction over violations in
more than 200 categories of federal law. They generally
fall under our three national security priorities and
our five criminal priorities as follows:
National Security Priorities:
1. Protect the United States from terrorist attack
It’s our overriding priority—to head off
terrorist attacks by identifying and disrupting the
plots of international and domestic terrorist operatives
and cells, by cutting off terrorist financing and undercutting
other forms of support provided by terrorist sympathizers,
by sharing information and intelligence with partners
worldwide, and by providing strategic and operational
threat analysis to decision makers and the wider intelligence
community.
Our work in Dallas is led by our North Texas Joint
Terrorism Task Force (NTJTTF), created in 1995 and
strengthened in the days following the 9/11 attacks.
The NTJTTF is made up of representatives of 24 local,
state, and federal agencies. They are responsible for
investigating all terrorism leads, developing and investigating
cases, providing support for special events, and proactively
identifying threats that may impact the area and the
nation. We also have North Texas Joint Terrorism Task
Force members working out of Fort Worth.
The work of the NTJTTF is bolstered by the Dallas
Field Intelligence Group, which centralizes and spearheads
the analysis and sharing of terrorism-related intelligence
(and intelligence on all major threats) both inside
and outside the Bureau.
For more information on the FBI’s national efforts
to prevent terrorist attacks, see our Counterterrorism
webpage.
Also see our Press
Room for current cases and our Dallas
History for past investigations.
2. Protect the United States against foreign intelligence
operations and espionage
Today, more foreign spies—not just traditional
adversaries but also allies, hackers, and terrorists—are
trying to steal more of our secrets from more places
than ever before. What do they want? Our country's
juiciest classified information, of course—from
military plans to national security vulnerabilities
to our own intelligence activities. But increasingly,
they also want our country's trade secrets—innovations
that give us a leg up in the global marketplace—and
seemingly harmless technologies that could be used
to develop or improve weapons of mass destruction.
In Dallas, we have dedicated counterintelligence squads
that—in line with the FBI’s National Strategy
for Counterintelligence—work to keep weapons
of mass destruction and other embargoed technologies
from falling into wrong hands, to protect secrets of
the U.S. government (including the intelligence community)
and critical national assets, and to help strengthen
the national threat picture by proactively gathering
information and intelligence. Our work includes knowing the key targets in our territory, developing strategic partnerships with area institutions, and disrupting the efforts of insiders and key nations.
For more information on the FBI’s national program,
see our Counterintelligence
webpage. And see our Press
Room for current cases and our Dallas History for past investigations.
3. Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks
and high-technology crimes
The FBI leads the national effort to investigate high-tech
crimes, including cyber-based terrorism, hostile intelligence
operations carried out over the Internet, and more
traditional cyber crime and fraud. Our work includes
identifying and stopping: the individuals and enterprises
behind the most serious computer intrusions and the
spread of malicious code; online sexual predators who
use the Internet to meet and exploit children and groups
that use it to produce, possess, or share child pornography;
operations that target U.S. intellectual property;
and the most significant perpetrators of Internet fraud.
In Dallas, we have a squad dedicated to cyber crimes
and attacks, and we participate in a variety of multi-agency
partnerships. Two examples are the North Texas Regional
Computer Forensic Labs (RCFL) and the Computer Analysis
Response Team (CART). See our People & Capabilities
webpage for details. Our resident agencies also investigate
cyber crimes.
For more information on the FBI’s national efforts,
see our Cyber
Investigations webpage.
And see our Press Room for
current cases and our Dallas
History for past investigations.
Criminal Priorities
4. Combat public corruption at all levels
Corruption in government threatens our country’s
democracy and national security, impacting everything
from how well our borders are secured and our neighborhoods
protected…to verdicts handed down in courts…to
the quality of our roads and schools. And it takes
a significant toll on our pocketbooks, too, wasting
billions of tax dollars every year.
Our investigations in Dallas focus on violations
of federal law—such as bribery, contract and
procurement fraud, antitrust, environmental crimes,
and election fraud—by public officials in local,
state, and federal government, as well as violations
of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act.
For more information on the FBI’s national efforts,
see our Public
Corruption webpage.
And see our Press Room for
current cases and our Dallas
History for past investigations.
5. Protect civil rights
The FBI is the lead agency for investigating violations
of federal civil rights laws…and we take that
responsibility seriously. Specifically, we aggressively
investigate and work to prevent hate crime, color of
law abuses, human trafficking, and freedom of access
to clinic entrances violations—the four top priorities
of our civil rights program. We focus on all of these
issues in Dallas.
For more information on our overall efforts, see our
Civil
Rights webpage.
And see our Press
Room for current cases and our Dallas History for past investigations.
6. Combat transnational/national criminal organizations
and enterprises
Criminal organizations—from mob families to
street gangs to drug trafficking outfits—sow
violence and crime in our communities and create underground
economies that undercut free enterprise
Most of our work in this priority throughout the Dallas Division focuses on violent gangs and drugs through
a variety of law enforcement partnerships. See our Partnerships
webpage for details.
Learn more about our national work to combat organized
crime and violent
street gangs.
And see our Press Room for
current cases and our Dallas
History for past investigations.
7. Combat major white-collar crime
Fraud—the art of deliberate deception for unlawful
gain—is as old as history; the term "white-collar
crime" was reportedly coined in 1939 and has since
become synonymous with the full range of frauds committed
by business and government professionals. Today's con
artists are more savvy and sophisticated than ever,
engineering everything from slick online scams to complex
stock and health care frauds.
We have numerous investigators dedicated to fighting
white-collar crime in the Dallas Division territory.
There are investigative squads located in Dallas, Fort
Worth, Frisco, and Tyler—as well as all Dallas
Resident Agencies—dedicated to white-collar crime
investigations. These investigators focus on mortgage
fraud, health care fraud, corporate fraud, securities
and commodities fraud, insurance fraud, asset forfeiture/money
laundering, bankruptcy fraud, government fraud and
hedge fund fraud.
For more information, see our White
Collar Crime webpage.
And see our Press Room for
current cases and our Dallas
History for past investigations.
8. Combat significant violent crime
Even with our post-9/11 national security responsibilities,
we continue to play a key role in combating violent
crime in big cities and local communities across the
United States. Beyond our work targeting violent gangs
and other criminal enterprises, we focus on such issues
as crimes against children, the search for wanted fugitives,
serial killings, kidnapping, murder for hire, bank
robberies, and special crimes like the carriage of
weapons on aircraft and crime on the high seas.
In Dallas, we work closely with a host of law
enforcement partners to address the full range of violent
crimes. See our Partnerships
webpage for details.
For more details on our overall national efforts,
see our Major
Thefts and Violent Crime webpage.
And see our Press Room for
current cases and our Dallas
History page for past investigations.
