Our People and Capabilities
Our People and Capabilities
Our people in Boston possess a mix of talents and experience that enable us to help protect you, your families, and your workplaces from a full range of national security threats and major crime problems.
Our employees not only include special agents, but also a variety of specialized professionals such as intelligence and financial analysts, investigative specialists, support services technicians, language specialists, public affairs specialists, paralegals, electronics technicians, and security experts.
Our strength lies in our investigations—the very heart of our operations—and in the collection, analysis, and sharing of intelligence that drives and supports those investigations both locally and nationally. In every case, we work to objectively gather the facts and to develop evidence that can stand up in a court of law. To do that, we can interview witnesses, run undercover operations, analyze financial records, map and manage crime scenes, develop informants, make arrests, conduct surveillance, and gather information and intelligence from around the globe. Our cases today are often complex and multi-faceted, involving a range of public and private sector partners and covering multiple jurisdictions.
Among our specialized capabilities:
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- Evidence recovery and processing: In the Boston Division, we have four, eight-member Evidence Response Teams made up of special agents and other support specialists who are sent to crime scenes to secure the area and exhaustively gather and process physical evidence. Each team member has a forensic specialty and has been extensively trained. They can take photographs, diagram and survey scenes, gather fingerprints, analyze blood stains and splatters, determine bullet trajectories, recover DNA, gather and process the smallest of clues, and more. The teams coordinate with the FBI Laboratory and assist local law enforcement upon request.
- Computer forensics: We also have a Computer Analysis and Response Team, or CART, that applies this same evidentiary concept to the digital world. These forensic examiners are experts at retrieving evidence from a vast array of digital devices, at processing that evidence in a way that maintains its integrity for use in court, and at presenting the results of their findings to investigators.
- Tactical support and crisis response: We have a highly trained and always ready Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.
- Hostage Negotiations Team: We have a highly trained Hostage Negotiations Team designed specifically to diffuse critical situations and help liberate victims in hostage situations.
- Bomb recovery and analysis: We employ highly trained and always ready bomb technicians who can test and render safe a variety of explosive devices.
- Hazardous materials: We have a Hazardous Materials Response Team, one of 27 in the FBI nationwide. It is specially trained to investigate and collect evidence in response to terrorist attacks and other criminal incidents involving hazardous materials—including chemical, biological, and radiological. The team works in concert with local, state, and federal agencies, as well as experts at the FBI Laboratory and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Operations unit at FBI Headquarters.
- Translation: Our group of language specialists can translate written documents and audio files in a variety of languages for terrorism, espionage, and criminal cases. They also join agents on cases, translating during live interviews and even during undercover operations.
For more information on FBI and its capabilities, see our About Us webpage.