Naval Criminal Investigative Service

The United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the primary investigative law enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Navy. Its primary function is to investigate major criminal activities involving the Navy and Marine Corps. However, its broad mandate includes national security, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cyberwarfare, and the protection of U.S. naval assets worldwide. NCIS is the successor organization to the former Naval Investigative Service (NIS), which was established by the Office of Naval Intelligence after World War II. One-half of NCIS personnel are civilian, with the other half being US government investigators — 1811 series special agents. NCIS agents are armed federal law enforcement investigators, who frequently coordinate with other U.S. government agencies and have a presence in more than 41 countries and on U.S. Navy vessels. NCIS special agents are supported by analysts and other experts skilled in disciplines such as forensics, surveillance, surveillance countermeasures, computer investigations, physical security, and polygraph examinations.

NCIS traces its origins to Navy Department General Order 292 of 1882, signed by William H. Hunt, Secretary of the Navy, which established the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Initially, ONI was tasked with collecting information on the characteristics and weaponry of foreign vessels, charting foreign passages, rivers, or other bodies of water, and touring overseas fortifications, industrial plants, and shipyards. In anticipation of the United States entry into World War I, ONI's responsibilities expanded to include espionage, sabotage, and all manner of information on the U.S. Navy's potential adversaries. The plan contemplated obtaining information by both overt and covert means, and, in the fall of 1916, the first branch office (a small undercover unit) was established in New York City under the supervision of the ONI. Heavy reliance was placed on reserve, active duty, and civilian operatives, many of the latter serving voluntarily and without pay. Rapid demobilization and the desire to return to normalcy after World War I saw investigative activity reduced to a virtual standstill. In early 1926, initiatives were undertaken to organize special groups of volunteer reserve intelligence officers who were envisioned to obtain information on persons and activities that might threaten the naval establishment, as well as provide a cadre of trained personnel in the event of a national emergency.

During the early and mid-1930s, the development of an independent professional investigative capability within the Navy was being nurtured. In Washington, D.C., the first civilian agent was employed in 1936 on a verbal basis and paid by personal check of the Director of Naval Intelligence. He was followed by a small handful of civilian special agents who were seeded throughout the naval districts beginning in 1936, although by September 1937 they numbered only 14 nationwide. In June 1939, President Roosevelt directed that ONI handle the investigation of Navy cases relating to sabotage, espionage, and subversive activities. By the fall of 1940, selective call-up of intelligence reservists for investigative and counterintelligence duties was undertaken on a broad scale and following entry into World War II, the Navy's investigative arm was staffed almost exclusively by reserve officers. Their primary tasks related to personnel security inquiries, sabotage, and espionage cases, investigation of Japanese activities in the United States, and war fraud matters. A peak was reached in 1943 when over 97,000 separate investigations were conducted by what was known as the "Naval Intelligence Service." After World War II, there was again a general demobilization, resulting in only a small corps of civilian special agents being retained. Although the Secretary of the Navy extended investigative jurisdiction in 1945, no meaningful expansion of personnel occurred until the Korean conflict when a major buildup of civilian agents took place.

Until the late 1950s, District Intelligence Office operations were under the command supervision of Naval District Commandants, and investigative effort was frequently parochial, fragmented, and on occasion, duplicative from one district to another. Workload, manpower, and jurisdiction in investigations and counterintelligence broadened following the Korean conflict. Several significant changes in organization and policy occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as refinements in mission, which culminated in the establishment of the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) in February 1966. In the early 1970s, an NIS special agent was stationed on USS Intrepid for six months. This marked the beginning of the "Deployment Afloat" program, now called the Special Agent Afloat program, which deploys special agents for year-long assignments aboard carrier battle groups and amphibious readiness groups. In 1972, background investigations were transferred from NIS to the newly formed Defense Investigative Service (DIS), allowing NIS to give more attention to criminal investigations and counter-intelligence. The 1970s also saw NIS' first female agent, who was stationed at Naval Air Station Miramar, California in 1975.

In October 1981, NIS became a Second Echelon Command under the Chief of Naval Operations. In August 1985, the Secretary of the Navy directed the appointment of a flag-rank naval officer to hold the position of Commander, NIS, reporting directly to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy. Rear Admiral Cathal L. Flynn, a Navy SEAL officer, became the first admiral to lead NIS. Additionally, in 1982, two classes of NIS Special Agents were trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, in an assessment of the school's capability to train military investigators. Before this and subsequently until 1984, NIS Special Agent Training was in ONI Headquarters in Suitland, Maryland. In 1984, NIS Special Agents began training at FLETC, along with other federal investigative agencies, except for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Two months after the October 1983 bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, the agency opened the Anti-Terrorist Alert Center (ATAC), a 24-hour-a-day operational intelligence center that issued indications and warnings on terrorist activity to Navy and Marine Corps commands. ATAC was the facility at which Jonathan Pollard was working when he committed the acts of espionage for which he was convicted in 1987. In 2002 the ATAC became the Multiple Threat Alert Center (MTAC). On November 15, 1985, NIS was re-designated as the Naval Security and Investigative Command (NSIC) and broadened its missions to include management of the DON Security Program. These programs included naval information, physical, and personnel security; adjudication for security clearances; and Navy law enforcement and physical security. This resulted in NSIC also assuming control of the Navy's Master-at-Arms program and the military working dog program. In 1986, the Department of the Navy Central Adjudication Facility (DoN CAF) was established and placed under the agency, as the agency was now once again responsible for adjudicating security clearances (although not the actual investigations). DoN CAF renders approximately 200,000 eligibility determinations annually for the Department of the Navy. On September 27, 1988, NSIC was changed to the Naval Investigative Service Command (NISC), though the organization at large was still known as the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) and the command generally referred only to the NIS headquarters element, similarly how the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command commanded all Criminal Investigation Division (CID) elements.

In 1991, NIS was responsible for investigating the Tailhook scandal, which involved allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment by Naval and Marine Corps officers in Las Vegas, Nevada. After this investigation, and at the direction of the chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Sam Nunn, the Naval Investigative Service was restructured into the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). The restructuring occurred as a result of perceived lapses in proper investigative technique over the Tailhook scandal, as well as chain of command issues and a lack of civilian oversight in previous investigations. At the time, Senator Nunn stated, "The Navy's whole investigative technique should be under serious question." As a result of the investigation into the Tailhook scandal, the Pentagon's inspector general was sharply critical of NIS leadership, stating that there was a top-down culture showing a lack of cooperation with other authorities in the Navy. By 1992, Acting Secretary of the Navy, Sean O'Keefe, recommended the word "Criminal" be included in NIS's name to make clear their investigative function. Ultimately, NIS commander, Rear Adm. Duvall Williams Jr., was forced to retire and NIS was reorganized as NCIS under civilian leadership.

In 1993, the NCIS mission was again clarified and became a mostly civilian agency. Roy D. Nedrow, a former United States Secret Service (USSS) executive, was appointed as the first civilian director and the name changed from Naval Investigative Service Command to Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). NCIS was aligned as an echelon two activity under the Secretary of the Navy, via the General Counsel. Nedrow oversaw the restructuring of NCIS into a Federal law enforcement agency with 14 field offices controlling field operations in 140 locations worldwide. In 1995, NCIS introduced the Cold Case Homicide Unit, the first dedicated federal-level cold case homicide unit. The unit has resolved 61 cases since 1995. In May 1997, David L. Brant was appointed director of NCIS by Secretary of the Navy John Howard Dalton. Director Brant retired in December 2005. He was succeeded by Director Thomas A. Betro, who was appointed director of NCIS in January 2006, by Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter. Betro retired in September 2009. On September 13, 2009, Deputy Director of Operations Gregory A. Scovel was appointed acting director by Under Secretary of the Navy, Robert Work. He served concurrently as deputy director for operations until the new director was selected.