To better ensure that crimes got solved and criminals got caught, J. Edgar Hoover demanded that the Bureau\u2019s agents meet and exhibit the highest professional standards. The expected qualities, and they were legion, were listed in a speech given in September, 1934, by Assistant Director Harold Nathan on his boss\u2019s behalf. The \u201cideal law enforcement officer,\u201d and that certainly meant the Bureau\u2019s special agents, according to Nathan, \u201cshould be well educated, because law enforcement is now a profession.\u201d In the FBI, that meant a law or accounting degree. He (and there was no \u201cshe\u201d in the ranks of special agents) should also be \u201ctruly intelligent. He should possess a mind capable of thinking quickly and effectively along the shortest possible lines to the solution of the most complicated, baffling problems. His thinking should be supplemented by a broad experience with all kinds and classes of humanity.\u201d Hoover also demanded that his men be:<\/p>\n
The ideal law enforcement organization, according to Nathan, speaking Hoover\u2019s mind, \u201cFirst and foremost\u2026 selects its personnel with the greatest care from the best available material.\u201d The applicant\u2019s record and associations should be \u201crigidly scrutinized\u201d all the way back to his school days. Higher education, agency testing, and hiring interviews ensured that the prospective law enforcement officer possessed the required \u201cresourcefulness, aggressiveness, tact, energy, and the like.\u201d Training in all facets of the job was necessary, while advancement based on merit and \u201cliberal salaries should be paid.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n The Division of Investigation (DOI), as Hoover\u2019s bureau became on July 1, 1933, fielded nearly 500 agents in mid-1934. Four-fifths were lawyers or accountants, and 116 had multiple university degrees. Fifty were said to speak foreign languages, but Spanish-speaking agents were rare. Most of them were young (their average age was 35) and, after several bloody missteps in the war on bank bandits, nearly all had received training in the use of pistols, rifles, automatic shotguns, and submachine guns. This homogenous army of always well-dressed college grads was stiffened by a few older lawmen possessing the experience to properly lead an investigation while commanding respect from the locals. They were also \u201cno-bullshit Cowboys\u201d who knew which end of a gun to point and were unafraid to pull the trigger first.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> The new DOI was created by the merger of the BOI and the Bureau of Prohibition. Hoover, director of both agencies, kept the bureaus separate, so as not to involve his \u201cspecial agents\u201d in liquor control. New York Times<\/em>, July 29, 1934, http:\/\/historicalgmen.squarespace.com\/storage\/fbisagentsofjusticearticle.pdf<\/a>. The reference to \u201ccowboys\u201d comes from Burrough, Public Enemies<\/em>, 53.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To better ensure that crimes got solved and criminals got caught, J. Edgar Hoover demanded that the Bureau\u2019s agents meet and exhibit the highest professional standards. The expected qualities, and they were legion, were listed in a speech given in September, 1934, by Assistant Director Harold Nathan on his boss\u2019s behalf. The \u201cideal law enforcement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-war-begins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulcoolbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
[1]<\/a> Harold Nathan, \u201cThe Ideal Law Enforcement Officer and the Ideal Law Enforcement Organization,\u201d Address given to the Pacific Coast Institute of Law and Administration of Justice, September, 1934, 14 Or. L. Rev., 327-338.<\/p>\n