Special agent is usually the title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government. An agent is a worker for any federal agency, and a secret agent is one who works for an intelligence agency.
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Within the U.S. government, the title of Special Agent is used to describe any federal general or criminal investigator in the GS-1801,1810,1811 or FS-2501 job series as so titled according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) handbook. Agents are typically educated at least as far as the undergraduate level. Such persons are usually armed and have the power to arrest and conduct investigations into the violation of federal laws.
Just about every federal agency has some type of special agent, including those employed within the:
Federal law enforcement training can be divided into various categories, the most common being basic, agency-specific basic (ASB), advanced/specialized, and agency-advanced/specialized. To operate safely and effectively, U.S. special agents and criminal investigators must possess skills and knowledge regarding criminal and civil law and procedure, enforcement operations, physical techniques, and technical equipment, to mention a few. They must also be physically fit. While possession of a college degree can aid in obtaining employment in this profession, only extensive training provided at specialized facilities, combined with on-the-job training, can provide the skills and knowledge needed to perform the duties of a federal criminal investigator.
U.S. special agents and federal criminal investigators generally receive their basic training at one of two primary locations: the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), in Brunswick, Georgia, or the FBI or DEA training facilities based at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
Only DEA and FBI agents receive their basic training at Quantico. Because of their size and mission scope, the FBI and DEA operate completely self-contained academies that provide all levels of training to their agents. These academies make no distinction between basic and agency-specific basic training. New FBI and DEA agents train at their academies for approximately five months before they begin their first investigative assignment. Both agencies' academies also provide advanced training in various subjects to other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. In fact, the FBI's National Academy is perhaps the most prominently recognized federal supplemental training resource for non-federal and non-U.S. law enforcement personnel throughout the world.
The FLETC, commonly pronounced flet-see, is a consolidated training facility that provides basic and advanced training to U.S. special agents and other federal law enforcement personnel not employed by the FBI, DEA or U.S. Postal Inspector Service (USPIS). The FLETC also provides advanced and specialized training for most federal, state, local, and non-U.S. law enforcement agencies willing to share in the cost. The FLETC's basic training course for special agents, the Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP) lasts about 13 weeks,and may be given to person's if required for self protection depending on changes to program content or holidays. Nevertheless CITP only represents the beginning or basic training received by U.S. special agents not employed by the FBI, DEA, or USPIS.
After completing the FLETC CITP, most agents immediately transition to training provided by their own agencies (hence the term agency-specific basic, or ASB), lasting another 2 to 16 weeks and sometimes longer, depending on the agency. Some smaller agencies, like the 64 Offices of Inspector General (OIGs), operate consolidated academies, such as the Inspector General Criminal Investigator Academy (IGCIA), through which specialized but common ASB-type skills and knowledge are more economically taught. So agents employed by the OIGs first attend CITP, then attend the IGCIA's IG Investigator Training Program (IGITP), then attend their own agencies' ASB training after completing IGITP, receiving a total of up to 16 weeks or more of training before conducting their first investigation. Many of the agencies utilizing FLETC maintain their individual academies for providing ASB and agency-specific advanced training on the same grounds as FLETC and share use of the same facilities. Some agencies, such as the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service and the U.S. Secret Service, conduct their ASB training in separate agency-owned and operated facilities.
Although a much smaller agency than the FBI or DEA, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service also operates a self-contained federal law enforcement training academy called the Career Development Division (CDD). Like FLETC and Quantico, USPIS CDD has been fully accredited by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA). Like the other academies, CDD provides basic training to postal inspectors in firearms, legal use of force, driving training, crime scene management, controlled deliveries, felony arrests, case management, case development, informant management, and surveillance, but also incorporates agency-specific basic training to help prepare the USPIS candidates in enforcing postal laws and federal mail statutes such as mail fraud, mail theft, and other mail related crimes. In additional to basic training, CDD also provides advanced training for the postal inspectors, the uniformed postal police personnel, and the analysts.
For all U.S. special agents, training does not stop after basic and ASB. The career of a federal special agent is one of regular training in new legal issues and investigative techniques, and frequently includes quarterly, if not monthly, refresher training in hand-to-hand defensive tactics, the use of weapons of less than lethal force, and regular qualification in the use of firearms.
Not all federal criminal investigators are called "special agents". Some federal agencies entitle their investigators as "criminal investigators" but use the term interchangeably with "special agent". Other federal agencies use different titles for the same 1811 criminal investigative job series. Series 1811 criminal investigators for the U.S. marshals are entitled "deputy marshals". Series 1811 criminal investigators for the U.S Postal Inspection Service are called "postal inspectors". These inspectors were originally called "surveyors" and received a title change in 1801 to "special agent", making them the first special agents in the United States. In 1880, the U.S. Congress created the position of "Chief Postal Inspector" and renamed these "special agents" to "postal inspectors".
The titles Special Agent and Secret Agent are not synonymous. The title Special Agent is commonly the official title assigned to individuals employed in that capacity, especially by the U.S. agencies described above (and for the reasons described below), whereas "secret agent" is less of an official title, but is used to describe individuals employed or engaged in espionage. U.S. Special Agents, like state, county, and municipal law enforcement officers, can, at various times, engage in secret or undercover activities as part of investigative operations, or counter-espionage assignments, during which they might be referred to as undercover agents. U.S. Special Agents may also be referred to, or refer to themselves, as criminal investigators, federal agents, U.S. Agents, U.S Special Agents, U.S. Federal Agents, agents, federal authorities, federal officers, federal investigators, or U.S. Officers. The latter terms are merely descriptors and not formal titles. 1811 series investigators are the only federal law-enforcement officers allowed by law to conduct undercover investigations.
At the management level, the head of a region or office might be called a Special Agent in Charge, abbreviated as an SAC or SAIC. First line supervisors may be called simply supervisor or Assistant Special Agent in Charge, abbreviated as ASAC.
Exactly which U.S. Special Agents have the broadest authority is a matter of debate. The issue of concurrent jurisdiction (in which two agencies have non-exclusive jurisdiction over a given set of the U.S. Code, such as the FBI, ICE, and DEA in respect to drug laws) does not make the issue clearer. However Special Agents of many agencies can enforce any federal law while performing their agency specific duties.
ATF, DEA, FBI, USSS, DSS, USCG, CGIS, USEPA CID, PFPA, USMS, and ICE/Homeland Security Investigations, special agents not only have the power to enforce all federal laws, but also applicable state and local laws, if so authorized by the state in which they are operating. DCIS, USACIDC, NCIS, and AFOSI special agents not only investigate statutes within the United States Code and state and local laws with a nexus to their branch; they are also tasked with enforcing the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), a jurisdiction not held by most of the larger federal agencies. DCIS, USACIDC, NCIS, and AFOSI civilian agents enjoy statutory law enforcement authority. Other special agents, such as those employed by the National Park Service, have jurisdiction over crimes committed within the boundaries of or have a nexus to the lands managed by their agency or department only. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents have administrative arrest powers under the Immigration and Nationality Act. They can administratively arrest and detain aliens for violations of United States Immigration laws pending federal removal (deportation) proceedings. HSI Special Agents can also seize merchandise and articles introduced into the United States contrary to U.S. laws under Title 19 United States Code.
Certain active-duty Special Agents employed by the military have broad authority, when the nexus of the violation they are investigating occurred on military-controlled areas or there is a military connection.
All of the major Class I railroads, most regional carriers, and some local railways employ their own police departments whose officers carry the title Special Agent. Railroad Special Agents are commissioned by the governor or other agency of the state they are employed in, are armed, and carry state arrest powers in all states in which their employing railroad owns property, if authorized by the state. Their primary concern is policing crimes against the railroad, although they sometimes have the authority to police the general public, make arrests on public property, and enforce applicable local, state, and/or federal laws when necessary.
Railroad police and the term Special Agent, along with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, were models for the FBI when it was created in 1907.
A state or municipal criminal investigator may also be a Special Agent if so titled by the employing agency. This is the case in the Illinois Department of Revenue's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Ohio Attorney General's Office, Iowa Department of Public Safety, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, for example.
Several Native American tribes also employ Special Agents as criminal investigators, court investigators, or gaming investigators and some are deputized as special federal officers of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.