Imperial Valley press., 1942-07-17
Editorials and Comment
BEHIND THE SCENES OF
THE FBTS REPUTATION

Nnen the I bl ClOSeS d CASE, dil VI Il1
credit generally does not belong to the
FBI
Seldom is there a better demonstration
of the fact that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation often gets too much credit,
and other branches of law enforcement
too little, than in the case of submarine
borne saboteurs who landed in America
several weeks ago and are now on trial
in Washington.
When the arrest of the German sabo-
teurS was first announced practically
all of the credit went to the FBl. That
was because the FBI made the announce
ment of the arrests, and gave out what
few details were published, and news
paper reporters had no opportunity TO
investigate farther.
Now that the general outline of the
case is fairly well known, however, 1t
has been revealed that the L. S. coast
guard on Long Island opened up the
case, made the first arrests and literally
dug up the evidence upon which much
of the subsequent investigation was based.
Undoubtedly - although details In this
respect are not vet known-there were
local law enforcement officials In chi
cago. and in Florida, who also helped inn
mensely in rounding up the saboteurs
W. do not intend to imply that the
FBI is a glory stealing organization. 1t
is highly efficient organization, but IN
the very necessary system under which
it is set up, it often deprives local peace
officers of great deal of credit, and
perhaps unintentionally - takes that
credit to itself The only criticism we
could possibly offer of the FBl Is that
in its announcements of arrests and IN
vestigations, it does not sufficiently ac-
knowledge the help it receives from other
groups.
The nationwide scope of the FBl, and
the restricted power of local law enforce
ment agencies in most communities, Is
partly responsible for this situation. The
FBI, of necessity, a sort of supervisory
organization. 1t has not enough man
power to staff every community, and so
must depend largely upon trustworthy
local officials. Yet these local officials,
alone, would be unable to accomplish the
things the FBI makes possible.
OTHERS DO THE WORK,
FBI TELLS THE STORY
Often, on some important investiga-
ton, only one or two FBI men will be
assigned to the job Where they can,
they contact local law enforcement Off
cials, ask and receive cooperation, and
the local branches do no end of work
trailing criminals, investigating evidence
and, many times, providing the proof
that is necessary to arrest and cOnvlc-
ton. One FBl man may work on case
where 10 local men are at work. Yet,
when the story of the successful investi-
cation comes out, it comes from the FBI
Too often, the local men are given no
credit
In our own county, for instance, Sher-
iff Robert w. Wares men, in many cases,
have completed Investigations partaking
of interstate or federal nature, and have
refrained from making any announce
ments because the FBI has been inter-
ested When the announcement comes,
it has been, usually, in somewhat this
form: "The Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion today announced the capture :"
There will follow details of the asserted
crime, but no more of the officers who
made the investigation. The natural as
sumption in the public mind is that it
was purely an FBI case. More often
than not, that is not true.
We do not contend that the announce
ments should come from local officials:
often they do not know the full ramifica-
tions of an Investigation We should like
to see the FBI give full credit where
credit is due, however 1t would lose
nothing by doing so; it would, instead.
give the public greater appreciation of
local officials.