Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI provides federal, state, local, and international law enforcement with behavioral-based investigative support—commonly known as profiling.

Mark Nichols: The behavioral perspective really brings a lot of things to light that maybe investigators weren’t previously aware of that will really help shape the future direction of the investigation when they understand their subjects on a deeper level from a behavioral perspective.

Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern, and this is FBI, This Week. The special agents and other professionals within the four Behavioral Analysis Units, or BAU, apply their expertise to terrorism and criminal cases. It’s a process called criminal investigative analysis. Unit Chief Mark Nichols says it’s just one way our law enforcement partners can move their cases closer to a resolution.

Nichols: Just one of the many tools in the investigators’ tool bag is, “Could we benefit from using BAU?” And often times, they can.

Halpern: Our law enforcement partners can request BAU’s assistance through coordinators located in each of the FBI’s 56 field offices. Services are provided without charge. Learn more about BAU at www.fbi.gov.