Reforming the FBI begins with ending waste, fraud and abuse

OPINION:

Ending waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government is a big Washingtonian battle cry. Traditionally, not much has happened to address this issue in the federal government, and my four decades in law enforcement have shown me just that. Our country deserves the premier law enforcement agency that the FBI is known as, not a body of waste, fraud and abuse that many Americans view it as now.

Thankfully, we are now on the precipice of real change under President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel’s leadership. Earlier this month, I appeared before the House Judiciary subcommittee on oversight to testify on the importance of reforming the FBI to move the agency back to its core mission of protecting the public, fighting crime and upholding the rule of law.

Although law enforcement reform is controversial, it is necessary to address this problem that has run rampant in the agency. That begins at the top. The media and some partisan lawmakers attempted to paint Mr. Patel as a radical danger to our nation, but he, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Mr. Trump are molding the agency to de-swampify it.

As I noted in my testimony, the intent of Reform the Bureau is not to harm the FBI but to restore it to its status as the world’s premier law enforcement agency. We are not looking for retribution but responsibility, something that has eluded the bureau over the past few years and that we now see finally returning to the forefront under Mr. Patel and Ms. Bondi.

As the FBI leader, Mr. Patel has made it his mission to restore trust in the agency. After his February confirmation, he told Fox News Digital that he would let “good cops be cops” to increase trust with the public after four years of malfeasance. Mr. Patel is taking the right steps to accomplish that goal, as evidenced by the record number of new agent applications to the FBI under his leadership.

Probably one of, if not the most significant, changes Mr. Patel is making to the FBI is decentralizing it. His move to relocate agents outside Washington to the rest of America will help the agency address crimes and build bridges between our premier law enforcement agency and the communities it serves. Moreover, it removes more of the agency from the belly of the beast, allowing for depoliticization to take hold.

During the Biden administration, I spoke with a senior official from the Virginia State Police, a close friend, when he made a point of view: We can never develop solid contacts at the FBI. His concern was that the FBI’s headquarters and Washington field office had become so transient, by design, that neighboring agencies such as the commonwealth’s couldn’t establish lasting, peer-level partnerships. The constant personnel rotation made building trust or continuity in interagency cooperation nearly impossible.

Another area of improvement is proper resource allocation. We at Reform the Bureau believe that criminal investigations at the FBI have been deprioritized in favor of politically charged issues. Properly reallocating resources also ensures that proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars is used and that the right agents are on the right jobs. This prevents one part of the agency from outsizing the others.

We saw the consequences of improper resource allocation in several instances. One glaring example was the targeting of pro-life demonstrators under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in a “systemic campaign” by the Biden-era Justice Department. At the same time, a free pass was given to violent, anti-American so-called protesters who defaced many precious statues, monuments and other government property throughout the country. Once again, our fellow law enforcement officers were left to stand alone, holding the line to protect their communities while their local history and heritage were torn down without consequence. Another example comes from the FBI’s withholding of the transgender Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale’s “manifesto” until a judge ordered its release.

A third, albeit personal, example of the FBI’s failures to properly allocate resources and exercise experienced leadership came in the form of tragedy at my daughter’s alma mater, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where she was a student at the time of the deadly mass shooting.

We must rebuild and reorient the bureau’s integrity to serve the American people, not internal politics. This is how we prevent the rot of politicization from destroying the FBI from within, and it’s how we prevent more tragedies like we have seen in the past several years.

The only way we can achieve that is through robust reform at the FBI, which Reform the Bureau stands ready to help accomplish.

• Richard Stout is the director of Reform the Bureau, a nationwide group of former and currently active special agents committed to restoring the FBI’s core mission: protecting the public, fighting crime and upholding the rule of law. Reform the Bureau believes a country cannot maintain ordered liberty without a highly capable, nonpartisan and legally compliant federal law enforcement agency that earns and keeps the public’s trust.