US EditionFBI to change recruiting standards, allowing more recruits from other federal agencies: report
The FBI's agent count may drop from 13,000 to about 11,000 due to buyouts and retirements, prompting removal of degree requirements and shortening of training to maintain staffing.
- Top leaders of the FBI have announced a plan to ease hiring requirements and shorten training durations in 2025 to address anticipated significant staff reductions.
- This move responds to the bureau’s anticipation of losing over 5,000 employees by September due to severance and early retirement offers from the Trump administration.
- The agency will no longer require recruits to have a bachelor's degree and will shorten academy training from about 18 weeks to eight, aiming to recruit more from other federal law enforcement.
- Former FBI official Chris O'Leary warned that lowered standards harm mission effectiveness and reputation, calling it 'generational destruction' and criticizing leadership’s lack of experience.
- These changes raised concerns among agents that the FBI risks shifting from a national security investigative focus toward a federal police role with diminished institutional expertise.
5 Articles
5 Articles
FBI set to lower agent recruiting standards
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to lower the recruitment standards for FBI agents, eliciting alarm from many agents who worry that the move will undermine the agency's primary mission of conducting complex investigations and tracking threats to national…
'Generational destruction': Ex-FBI official slams plan to lower standards for new agents
President Donald Trump's administration is now rolling out noticeably lower standards for FBI agents, and one former official at the bureau is sounding the alarm.The New York Times reported Thursday that FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino are now announcing that the bureau will no longer require potential FBI agents to have a bachelor's degree. Additionally, the length of the training program at the FBI's academy in Quantico…
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