Exclusive: FBI Turning to New Agents from Quantico to Patrol D.C. Streets, as Ex-Agents Question Shift Toward Police Work

The FBI will soon be sending a group of newly minted special agents to conduct police officer-style foot patrols around Washington D.C., marking the latest in a series of unconventional changes to how the world’s most powerful law enforcement agency recruits and trains new agents, The New York Sun can exclusively confirm.Come April 1, a small number of the more than 100 members from Class 26-01, now wrapping up their 18-week Basic Field Training Course at the legendary FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia will be sent to the Washington Field Office for a 60-day temporary assignment, where they will be expected to join local and federal law enforcement agencies on foot patrol in the District, five current and former FBI officials tell the Sun. The foot patrols — which have heretofore stretched nearby FBI offices thin — are part of President Trump’s concerted effort to use the power of the American military and federal law enforcement to crack down on crime in D.C. Traditionally, FBI agents were sent directly from Quantico to their first-office assignments at one of the bureau’s small- to medium-sized field offices around the country. More recently, new graduates would spend two to three months working with Counterterrorism squads prior to accepting their first office assignments, former FBI officials tell the Sun.FBI and Border Patrol officers arrest Sean Charles Dunn, after he allegedly assaulted law enforcement with a sandwich, along the U Street corridor during a federal law enforcement deployment to the nation’s capital on August 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an increased presence of federal law enforcement to Washington, DC in an effort to curb crime. Andrew Leyden/Getty ImagesBut assigning rookie FBI agents to street patrol — even in the nation’s capital —is unprecedented. Some retired agents questioned the purpose of sending newly trained investigators to the streets to do what, on the surface, looked like the work of a beat cop, not a federal investigator.“The FBI is fundamentally an investigative agency, not a patrol agency,” a retired FBI agent and president of the FBI Integrity Project, James Davidson, tells The Sun.The FBI director, Kash Patel, has been clear that he wants the FBI to return to its roots in fighting domestic crime after the bureau spent the past two decades expanding its intelligence and counterterrorism mission following the September 11 attacks. The bureau was also involved, during the Biden Administration, with multiple criminal investigations of the President. The ouster of FBI personnel who participated in the probes — along with resignations and retirements — contributed to a staff shortfall, which in turn necessitated changes to the recruitment and training process. Since becoming FBI director in 2025, Mr. Patel, 45, has made “crushing violent crime” one of the bureau’s top priorities. He also pledged to “reorient our assets in Washington” by transferring 1,500 staffers from headquarters to field offices across the country, 500 of which were sent to its large campus in Huntsville, Alabama. FBI Director Kash Patel White House speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, FileIt was not clear whether the new agents on foot patrol are expected to assist in immigration enforcement with the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who also have boots on the ground in D.C. In a statement to the Sun, the FBI confirmed the new temporary assignments, adding that the new agents will be “paired with an experienced senior special agent for this structured program” at the Washington Field Office.There are more than 100 special agents and analysts from the Washington Field Office who are currently serving on the “Beautiful and Safe” task force, the FBI added. At the end of their temporary assignment, those junior agents on DC foot patrol will report to their assigned field offices “with specialized skills in crime suppression and partnering with state, local, and federal agencies that will serve them and members of their communities well,” the FBI said in its statement to the Sun.From the outset, Mr. Patel said he has wanted his FBI to let “good cops be good cops,” a formulation that many ex-agents saw as a disconnect between how he saw the FBI and the full breadth of investigative work they do, which by design and tradition exceeds standard police work.FBI agents patrol 14th Street, working alongside with Washington DC Metro police and the National Guard on August 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. An increased presence of law enforcement has been seen throughout the nation’s capital since President Trump ordered in federal officers and the U.S. National Guard. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images“FBI agents should not be used as a deterrent to crime. They should be used to pursue investigations to establish linkages and connectivity between criminal acts to charge larger conspiracies,” a retired FBI special agent, Scott Curtis, tells the Sun.Until recently, FBI agents from neighboring field offices like Newark, Baltimore, and Philadelphia were given temporary duty assignments, or TDYs, to patrol metropolitan Washington. But in September, the New York Times reported that the patrols were stretching FBI agents “so thin that none of the bureau’s priorities are getting the full attention they deserve.” Those regional offices are now off the hook from having “to send bodies” to the city for patrols in light of the FBI’s new plans for pairing junior agents with seasoned agents and analysts from the Washington Field Office, two people with knowledge of the bureau’s plans tell the Sun. In a statement to the Sun, the FBI declined to comment on personnel numbers and future involvement from regional offices. “The FBI continuously assesses and realigns our resources to ensure the safety of the American people,” the bureau added.Last month, the FBI announced it was striking two test requirements — a written test and an in-person interview — for its support staffers who are applying for new agent training. Mr. Patel, a former national security staffer and federal public defender who had no prior FBI experience before being confirmed as FBI director, is under pressure to hire 700 new agents in 2026 to replace the exodus of thousands of special agents who were fired, forced out, or resigned since President Trump took office, sources tell the Sun.The FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia. WikipediaMost recently, Mr. Patel dismissed several agents from CI-12, a counterintelligence squad based out of the Washington Field Office that focused on threats and global espionage that included those emanating from countries such as Iran. The agents and staffers dismissed from CI-12 had previously been assigned, in some capacity, to the Justice Department’s investigation — conducted during the Biden administration — into Mr. Trump’s retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The New York Sun was the first to report on the targeting of CI-12. Last year, Mr. Trump, declaring a crime emergency in Washington D.C., signed Executive Order 14252, which established the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force that would partner federal law enforcement with MPD, local transit police, and other agencies to deliver “maximum enforcement” of immigration and criminal laws in the metropolitan Washington area. Then, on August 11, Mr. Trump, taking “bold executive action to liberate Washington D.C. from the cesspool of crime and homelessness that it has become after decades of unilateral Democrat leadership,” declared a public safety emergency in the city and handed over control of the MPD to his attorney general, Pam Bondi. “They’ll immediately begin massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers, and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street,” Mr. Trump said in August.The week before his announcement, Mr. Trump had threatened to take Federal control of the city after a 19-year-old former Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE, staffer, Edward Corsitine — who went by the online moniker “Big Balls” — was attacked by 10 juveniles in a carjacking attempt near Dupont Circle.The number of violent crimes, carjackings, and robberies in the city spiked in 2023. That was followed by an unmistakable and large drop in violence since the summer of 2023, the president and chief executive officer of the Council on Criminal Justice, Adam Gelb, wrote in a 2025 statement.(L-R) Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro laugh during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House August 11, 2025. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesThe Washington Post, citing D.C. police data, reported that violent crime in D.C. dropped to a 30-year low in 2024. However, an MPD police commander, Michael Pulliam, was placed on administrative leave in May 2025 for allegedly manipulating crime data in his district to reflect a steep drop in violent crimes in his district.In December, a Justice Department report found that a former MPD Police Chief, Pamela Smith, fostered a “coercive culture of fear” that resulted in “likely unreliable and inaccurate” statistics for D.C. crime.“In one case, officers kept a list of more than 150 instances since March 2024 where they believed offenses in a Southeast Washington police district were inappropriately classified to downplay the seriousness of crimes,” the Washington Post reported.But many current and former FBI employees told Reuters in September that the agency’s D.C. patrol — which requires them to wear tactical gear identifying them as FBI agents —was exposing its agents and its fleet of unmarked cars, “potentially risking its ability to do its most sensitive national security and surveillance work.” FBI agents walk on patrol in the U street neighborhood on August 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. Andrew Leyden/Getty Images“We can’t use these cars to go undercover, we can’t use them to surveil narcotraffickers and fentanyl suppliers or Russian or Chinese spies or use them to go after violent criminal gangs or terrorists,” a current FBI employee told Reuters.Last month, the White House declared America was “safer, stronger, and winning again” while also ending “the era of Democrat-inspired lawlessness.”In Washington, Mr. Trump said murders declined by 66 percent, carjackings were down by 82 percent, and violent crime was down by more than 31 percent. “You cannot overstate the impact of President Trump’s decision to step in and work with local cops to make D.C. safe again,” Mr. Patel wrote in a post on X in February.Members of Special Agent Class 26-02, which is set to graduate in May, will also be assigned to the Washington Field Office for foot patrols, according to two people with knowledge of the FBI’s plans. A retired FBI chief of the Firearms Training Unit at the FBI Academy, Michael Harrigan, tells the Sun that new agents have the maturity and the tools to handle street-level work they will encounter during their 60-day rotation in Washington.“I guess it will come down to the mission. If they’re expected to go to the Washington Monument and just stand there, then it’s pretty low risk,” he adds.Mr. Davidson tells the Sun that experience on the street could be valuable “insofar as it contributes to making someone a better investigator.”He adds: “If new agents are simply being deployed to patrol streets for optics or political signaling, that would be inconsistent with the Bureau’s core mission and a questionable use of highly trained personnel.”

Exclusive: FBI Turning to New Agents from Quantico to Patrol D.C. Streets, as Ex-Agents Question Shift Toward Police Work

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