In a meeting with Black law enforcement executives, FBI Director Christopher Wray reaffirmed the FBI’s reliance on partner agencies like theirs to succeed in making the country safer from threats including violent crime, drugs, counterterrorism, and cybercrime.

“From where I sit, it would be nearly impossible to overstate just how critical partnerships are to really everything we do in today’s threat environment,” Wray said during a keynote address at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) Training Conference & Exhibition on July 24 in Cleveland.

Wray also stressed the value of data-sharing between our state and local partners and the FBI, which could improve the quality of crime reporting. He also underscored the importance of officer mental health and wellness, and encouraged increased participation in the FBI’s Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection.

Violent Crime 

Wray said the theme of the conference, “Stronger Together,” was fitting given how much the FBI relies on partner agencies for task force officers—more than 5,000 from hundreds of agencies and departments across the country—to fight violent crime within American communities.

“The drivers from place to place are varied and at times hard to pinpoint, but what is clear is that the best way—really the only way—to effectively tackle the violent crime problem is the same across the board, and that’s by working together, leveraging our collective strengths, resources, and authorities to better protect our communities,” Wray said.

According to Wray, the FBI’s collaboration with violent crime task forces helped the Bureau achieve multiple milestones in 2022, including:

• Arresting 20,000 violent criminals and child predators
• Seizing more than 9,600 firearms seizures from violent offenders
• Dismantling 370 gangs and violent criminal enterprises
• Cutting into the capabilities of 3,500 additional gangs and violent criminal enterprises

Drugs and Fentanyl 

The FBI’s partnerships are also helping it to combat drug trafficking within the United States, especially as the frequency of fentanyl seizures rises, Wray said.

“Working together, we’re running well over 300 investigations targeting the leadership of the cartels trafficking dangerous drugs into this country,” he said. “This year alone–this year alone—we’ve already seized hundreds of kilograms of fentanyl, stopping deadly drugs from reaching their intended destinations in states across the U.S., and saving countless American lives.”

He said our collaborative efforts to get drugs off American streets include:

• Partnering with U.S. Customs and Border Protection "to advance border-related investigations to further disrupt the supply chain
• Leading the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement Task Force, which works to derail the efforts of darknet-based drug traffickers
• Taking part in 17 Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Strike Forces across the U.S.

He also touted a recent interagency collaboration in the Cleveland area that led to a large-scale fentanyl seizure.

“The Cleveland Strike Force, made up of a whole slew of state and federal partners, recently took down a transnational drug trafficking organization that was delivering fentanyl and other drugs across the country by the truckload,” he said. “This group, associated with the Sinaloa Cartel, was sending trucks laden with drugs from California to Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, with those trucks then returning to California full of illicit cash. In this one case, we seized about 30 kilograms of fentanyl—that’s enough lethal doses to kill more than the entire population of Ohio.”

Counterterrorism 

Wray said the evolving nature of the terrorism threat demands stronger bonds between the Bureau and state and local law enforcement agencies.

He explained that lone actors—whether they be jihad-inspired homegrown violent extremists or ideologically or domestic-issue-driven domestic violent extremists—tend to act soon after they’re radicalized. This, combined with the fact that they tend to act alone or with few co-conspirators, doesn’t “leave a whole lot of 'dots' for those of law enforcement to connect, or a whole lot of of time for us to connect them,” Wray said.

“And to make matters worse, we often see them using easily-obtainable weapons like a firearm, a knife, a crude IED [improvised explosive device], or even something like a car against 'soft targets'—which, of course, is just Intelligence-Community-speak for everyday people, living their everyday lives,” he said.

According to Wray, the ability for “angry, disaffected” individuals to find and network with like-minded people on the internet is giving would-be lone actors an unprecedented “sense of community and validation.”

“In a sense, social media serves as a sort of accelerant, facilitating access to propaganda and training materials, and providing a means for recruitment, target selection, incitement, and even operational planning,” he added.

The complexity of this threat underscores the importance of the FBI’s cooperation with local law enforcement, since local partners have an innate understanding of their communities, and thus, are “the eyes and ears in the fight against terrorism.”

Cyber 

Wray also underscored the importance of the Bureau’s Cyber Task Forces, which unite the FBI with state and local partners to combat these threats. He said the FBI aims to train-up more state- and local-level experts, and to better equip the law enforcement to combat cybercrime.

"The cyber threat can’t be adequately addressed without collaboration across all levels of law enforcement, which is why we’ve set up Cyber Task Forces in all 56 of our field offices, a lot like the Joint Terrorism Task Forces you’re familiar with and that your folks may have been a part of for some time now,” he said. “The task force model allows us to share information more quickly, surge resources where they're most needed, and collaborate with our partners more effectively.”

Task forces also let teammates exchange expertise and expand their cybersecurity skillsets, which proves especially important in the fight against what Wray called “‘middle-market’ cybercrime.” He defined this as cybercrime that demands the Bureau’s “specialized knowledge, training, and skills” to investigate, but that doesn’t “meet the threshold for federal prosecution.” By working side-by-side with the Bureau’s cyber experts on these kinds of cases, he said, state and local partners can learn from them and bring back lessons learned to their home law enforcement departments.

NIBRS Reporting 

The FBI has made significant strides in expanding National Incident-Based Reporting System (or NIBRS) participation—with all 50 states and Guam now NIBRS-certified, Wray said.

But he said more law enforcement agencies need to share data with the FBI via NIBRS to keep Bureau crime reporting relevant and useful.

“NIBRS helps answer a lot of questions—about individual incidents, about trends, about offender relationships, and a whole lot more,” Wray said. “It can also help us determine where best to deploy our already-stretched and -scarce resources. I know I don’t need to tell this group that law enforcement resources and manpower are not infinite. But armed with data, we’ve got a much better idea of where our resources are needed the most.”

Wray acknowledged that getting started with NIBRS reporting can be time- and resource-intensive but noted that the FBI can help law enforcement agencies make this shift.

At the end of the day, he said, NIBRS participation isn’t only about the Bureau—it benefits the entire U.S. law enforcement community.

“Ultimately, by contributing data through NIBRS, you’re not just helping us,” he said. “You’re helping and supporting every other chief and sheriff across the country, and all the citizens they serve.”

Preventing Law Enforcement Officer Suicides 

Wray also shone a spotlight on the issue of office wellness, calling the ability to recognize and process work-related stress a mark of strength.

He said he’s instructed Bureau leaders to cultivate an environment in which FBI personnel can feel comfortable asking for help if they need it. And he asked conference attendees to follow his lead.

“Set the example when the stress and the grind of your day jobs take hold again,” he said. “Take care of yourself, too.”

Wray tasked the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division to stand up the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection, and the Bureau began collecting this data in 2022. But only 22 agencies reported data, he said.

“This is a problem we’re going to need a lot more data on if we’re going to really understand and change what’s happening in our profession,” he said. “So, I would urge every department here  to participate and to help spread the message about our law enforcement suicide repository. The information that we glean and share could literally save lives.”