FBI Special Agent in Charge to Speak at Law School

From an e-mail:

Thursday, February 10—FBI Special Agent in Charge Nancy McNamara—McNamara is the first woman to head the Milwaukee Division of the FBI. Before her appointment last fall, she served as section chief in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters. From national security to public corruption, we’ll learn more about the FBI’s mission today, and about the professional journey that resulted in McNamara’s historic appointment to her post in Milwaukee. 12:15 p.m., Eckstein Hall, Reserve Your Spot

In public esteem, the FBI has been up and it has been down. Under legendary director J. Edgar Hoover the prowess and professionalism of the “G-men” were almost mythical in the perceptions of the public.

But Hoover was the perfect exemplification of Acton’s dictim that “power corrupts,” and when his abuses of power were publicized in the late 60s and 1970s, the reputation of the Bureau took a hit.

But bureaucracies tend to maintain themselves, and in spite of Hoover’s excesses, the FBI continued to be an organization with a high degree of professionalism.

Today, the Bureau doesn’t tower over local law enforcement agencies in terms of professionalism the way it once did, because those local agencies are now much better trained and expert.

But the Bureau is still a rather elite agency, a prestigous place to be if you are in law enforcement, and “front and center” in the war against terror.