QUANTICO, Va. — The first civilian director of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division gave a report on his first hundred days to the Senior Official Performing the Duties of Under Secretary of the Army at CID Headquarters in Quantico, Virginia on Tuesday.
During the visit to the Russell Knox Building, Director Gregory Ford and members of the CID senior leadership team briefed the Honorable Christopher Lowman on the progress being made on the approved transformation plan for the agency.
“I am extremely proud of my team and what we have accomplished over the last few months,” said Ford. “We have aggressively moved forward with the organization’s transformation. There have been a few bumps in the road and some challenges, but we have worked through them and will continue to address any issues as they come. I am continually impressed with the efforts and dedication of our field agents. We continue to make changes relative to our structure and culture in order to ensure CID is postured to continually provide the level of support the Army deserves.”
Ford said his team will continue to accelerate the needed changes to structure and culture within the organization.
“The success of the transformation will be measured by how CID compares to the other military criminal investigative organizations and other federal law enforcement agencies while meeting the needs of the Army,” he said. “For that reason, we are keeping our foot on the accelerator and, not only implementing the approved transformation plan but also making decisions, within the purview of CID, to better position the agency to meet its mission now.”
After receiving an update on the transformation status, Lowman held a virtual town hall for CID special agents.
“I’m incredibly proud to be the Army Senior Leader chosen to support this change,” said Lowman. “It’s the most challenging and satisfying initiative I’ve been a part of … CID is critical to the Army of the future.”
The CID is in the final stages of hiring its first ever civilian special agents-in-charge and resident agents-in-charge. This harkens a new era in the CID that will modernize the organizational and supervisory structure to match that of other federal law enforcement agencies. The first civilian SACs and RACs will be assigned to Fort Hood, Fort Carson and Fort Bragg.
To support the influx of hiring more than 500 civilian agents and support personnel, the Division has created a hiring cell to focus effort on hiring the significant number of civilian personnel that will be brought onboard over the next few years.
“First and foremost, we are a law enforcement agency and our agents are federal law enforcement officers dedicated to preventing and investigating crime impacting the Army and the readiness of the total force,” said Ford. “That said, the non-agent personnel and the work they do enables the safe and efficient execution of the mission making them an integral part of this law enforcement team.”
Part of CID’s transformation is to further define the Army nexus and the point when CID becomes involved in investigations. He said, to properly support the Army, the concern shouldn’t be where the crime occurs, but rather the impact the crime has on the Army and its community. The end result will provide “greater insight for Army senior leaders and mission commanders as to what is happening off-post, from a crime standpoint, and how it may impact Army personnel or installations.”
The Division also recently established the Investigations and Operations Directorate at CID Headquarters. The IOD will enhance leadership visibility for ongoing investigations and allow for programmatic oversight designed to identify and share lessons learned and best practices. The IOD will also centralize oversight responsibility of investigations, leading to increased standardization of investigative processes across the organization.
The Cyber Directorate is also being enhanced. The Directorate controls CID’s entire digital forensic enterprise, creating efficiencies in turnaround time for exams and overall better investigative response to active investigations. The Directorate will optimize the efficiency of the digital forensic examiner workforce, increase digital literacy across the organization and procure standardized cyber investigative tools for the agency. The former Major Cybercrime Unit is now a Cyber Field Office under the Directorate.
“This has been a team effort by CID personnel and others within the Department of the Army,” said Ford. “We’ve advanced the ball quite a bit, but there is a lot more to come. Going forward, my focus will remain on building the CID necessary to provide superior criminal investigative support to the Army now and into the future.”
Social Sharing