Kimberly Kidd
Special Agent
Louisville Field Office
My FBI training academy class was the fourth class to graduate after 9/11. After graduation I was placed on a Joint Terrorism Task Force in Pittsburgh. While at my first office, I met a fellow agent from Kentucky. Within three years, we were married, and I was working counterintelligence in Lexington. This led to several roles within the national security side of the house. In 2010, I raised my hand to work crimes against children, and I have been in that role ever since.
What drew you to the FBI?
A career in the FBI was never something that had ever crossed my mind until a DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent I knew encouraged me to apply to the Bureau. I thought: I was a female under 30 with a psychology degree, why would the Bureau want me? He said, because I was a female under 30 with a psychology degree.
I’ve met many agents who dreamed of this job their whole lives. That was not my story. My story is about bringing my unique skills and experience to the Bureau and helping to add the diversity the Bureau needs.
Share the thing you’re most proud of from your FBI career.
The decision to work crimes against children was the best career move I could have made, but of course, I made it without knowing how powerful it would be.
All of my investigations have left a mark on my career, but it is the work from the last several years that have made the biggest impact. I have seen huge changes in the technology used to distribute child sexual abuse material in the years I have worked these cases, but the one constant is that there is always a real child behind those images.
Having the honor and privilege of meeting victims face to face, hearing their stories, holding their hands, crying with them as they must relive their abuse, and sitting with them as their abuser is sentenced is incredibly powerful. These young victims have helped shape and mold my career in a way no other violation can.
Unless you work this, you may not fully understand the impact. But for those of us who do, we get it, and we share a bond that is unlike any other in the Bureau and law enforcement in general. We know what another investigator is going through, and we are there in a heartbeat for each other. I am proud of the 50, 60, and even 100-year jail sentences our team has been able to get for the abusers in these cases. But I am most proud of the difference our cases have made for those we helped and the team that has been with me every step of the way.
