United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations

Air Force Office of Special Investigations
Air Force Office of Special Investigations
Abbreviation	AFOSI or OSI
	Air Force Office of Special Investigations emblem
	Badge of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations
Agency overview
Formed	August 1, 1948
Employees	2,900 (2007)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency	United States
General nature	Federal law enforcement; Military provost;
Operational structure
Headquarters	Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia
Agency executive	Brigadier General Kevin J. Jacobsen
Parent agency	Department of the Air Force
Units	Several Threat detection ; Criminal Investigations ; Technology protection ; Defense Cyber Crime Center ; Antiterrorism ;
Regions	8
Website
	www.osi.andrews.af.mil

The United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI, or OSI), is a U.S. federal law enforcement agency that reports directly to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Operating worldwide, AFOSI provides independent criminal investigative, counterintelligence and protective service operations outside of the traditional military chain of command. AFOSI proactively identifies, investigates and neutralizes, serious criminal, terrorist, and espionage threats to personnel and resources of the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense, thereby protecting the national security of the United States.

Overview

AFOSI was founded August 1, 1948, at the suggestion of Congress to consolidate investigative activities in the Air Force. Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington created AFOSI and patterned it after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He appointed Special Agent Joseph Carroll, a senior FBI official and assistant to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, as the first AFOSI commander and charged him with providing independent, unbiased and centrally directed investigations of criminal activity in the Air Force who later became the first director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.^[1] As of 2007, the AFOSI has 2,900 employees.^[2] After pilot training, OSI remains the second-most requested career choice in the U.S. Air Force.^[3] AFOSI capabilities:^[4]

Protect critical technologies and information
Detect and mitigate threats
Provide global specialized services
Conduct major criminal investigations
Engage foreign adversaries and threats offensively

OSI's Cornerstone is to vigorously solve crime; protect secrets; warn of threats; exploit intelligence opportunities; operate in cyber.^[5]

Organization

In addition to the OSI headquarters at Quantico, Virginia, AFOSI has eight field investigations regions. Seven of the Regions are aligned with Air Force major commands:

Region 1 with Air Force Materiel Command
Region 2 with Air Combat Command
Region 3 with Air Mobility Command
Region 4 with Air Education and Training Command
Region 5 with United States Air Forces in Europe
Region 6 with Pacific Air Forces
Region 7 with the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force
Region 8 with Air Force Space Command

While the regions serve the investigative needs of those aligned major commands, all AFOSI units and personnel remain independent of those commands. In the OSI chains of command each region is directly under the AFOSI Headquarters. Such organizational independence is intended to ensure unbiased investigations.

The single region not aligned with a major command is Region 7, the mission of which is to provide counter-intelligence and security-program management for special access programs under the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

At the regional level are subordinate units called field investigations squadrons, detachments, and operating locations. There are more than 160 AFOSI units worldwide including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle East locations.^[6]

Operations

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Several OSI agents at a US Air Force base.

Threat detection

AFOSI manages offensive and defensive activities to detect, counter and destroy the effectiveness of hostile intelligence services and terrorist groups that target the Air Force. These efforts include investigating the crimes of espionage, terrorism, technology transfer and computer infiltration. This mission aspect also includes providing personal protection to senior Air Force leaders and other officials, as well as supervising an extensive antiterrorism program in geographic areas of heightened terrorist activity. Criminal Investigations

The vast majority of AFOSI's investigative activities pertain to felony crimes including murder, robbery, rape, assault, major burglaries, drug use and trafficking, sex offenses, arson, black market activities, and other serious criminal activities. Economic crime investigations A significant amount of AFOSI investigative resources are assigned to fraud (or economic crime) investigations. These include violations of the public trust involving Air Force contracting matters, appropriated and nonappropriated funds activities, computer systems, pay and allowance matters, environmental matters, acquiring and disposing of Air Force property, and major administrative irregularities. AFOSI uses fraud surveys to determine the existence, location and extent of fraud in Air Force operations or programs. It also provides briefings to base and command-level resource managers to help identify and prevent fraud involving Air Force or DOD resources.

Information Operations

The Air Force is now countering a global security threat to our information systems. Our role in support of Information Operations recognizes future threats to the Air Force, and our response to these threats, will occur in cyberspace. AFOSI's support to Information Operations comes in many facets. AFOSI's computer crime investigators provide rapid worldwide response to intrusions into Air Force systems. Technology Protection The desires of potential adversaries to acquire or mimic the technological advances of the U.S. Air Force have heightened the need to protect critical Air Force technologies and collateral data. The AFOSI Research and Technology Protection Program provides focused, comprehensive counterintelligence and core mission investigative services to safeguard Air Force technologies, programs, critical program information, personnel and facilities. Specialized Services AFOSI has numerous specialists who are invaluable in the successful resolution of investigations. They include technical specialists, polygraphers, behavioral scientists, computer experts and forensic advisers. Defense Cyber Crime Center The Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) was established as an organic entity within the Air Force Office of Special Investigations in 1998. DC3 provides digital and multimedia forensics, cyber investigative training, research, development, test and evaluation, and cyber analytics for the following DoD mission areas: information assurance and critical infrastructure protection, law enforcement and counterintelligence, document and media exploitation, and counterterrorism. DC3 is a national cyber center and serves as the operational focal point for the Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Program (DIB CS/IA Program).

Training and physical requirements

All new AFOSI special agent recruits—whether officer, enlisted or civilian—receive their entry-level training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. The training requires that each recruit meet physical requirements that are located on the FLETC web site at www.fletc.gov. The candidates attend a mandatory, 11-week Criminal Investigator Training Program with other federal law enforcement trainees. That course is followed by seven weeks of AFOSI agency-specific coursework. Both courses offer new agents training in firearms and other weapons, defensive tactics, forensics, surveillance and surveillance detection, antiterrorism techniques, crime scene processing, interrogations and interviews, court testimony, and military and federal law. Upon graduation, new AFOSI special agents spend a one-year probationary period in the field. Upon successful completion, some agents receive specialized training in economic crime, antiterrorism service, counterintelligence, computer crimes and other sophisticated criminal investigative capabilities. Others attend 12 weeks of technical training to acquire electronic, photographic and other skills required to perform technical surveillance countermeasures. Experienced agents selected for polygraph duties attend a 14-week DOD course.^[7]

Each recruit is expected to participate in each of the following exercises: flexibility, bench press, 1.5-mile (2.4 km) run/walk and agility run. All students are tested to determine their fitness level, and each test is age and gender normed. AFOSI special agents are expected to remain physical fit throughout their employment and must maintain Air Force physical fitness standards as defined by Air Force Instruction (AFI) 36-2905.