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Library > Fact Sheets > Air Force Office of Special Investigations
AIR FORCE OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS
Posted 10/23/2015
Printable Fact Sheet
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations has been the Air Force's major investigative service since Aug.1, 1948. The agency reports to the Inspector General, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. AFOSI provides professional investigative service to commanders of all Air Force activities. Its primary responsibilities are criminal investigations and counterintelligence services.
FUNCTION
We are a federal law enforcement and investigative agency operating throughout the full spectrum of conflict, seamlessly within any domain; conducting criminal investigations and providing counterintelligence services.
MISSION
To Identify, exploit and neutralize criminal, terrorist and intelligence threats to the Air Force, Department of Defense and U.S. Government.
VISION
A trusted and relevant global investigative agency, synchronized with a changing strategic environment. A reliable and indispensable partner, recognized for excellence, enabling and protecting the Air Force of the 21st Century.
PILLARS
Cornerstone -- Vigorously solve crime; protect secrets; warn of threats; exploit intelligence opportunities; operate in cyber.
Foundational -- AFOSI is committed to a philosophy of participative leadership in steadfast pursuit of mission success, development of our people and organizational excellence at all levels
Guiding Pillar 1 - Build an environment of excellence at all levels, all the time
Guiding Pillar 2 - Elevate professional stature of AFOSI in the Department of Defense, United States and international arenas
Guiding Pillar 3 - Be a requirements-driven organization and build capabilities in depth
AFOSI CAPABILITIES
AFOSI provides five robust capabilities; they are:
· Protect critical technologies and information
· Detect and mitigate threats
· Provide global specialized Services
· Conduct major criminal investigations
· Engage foreign adversaries and threats offensively
MOTTO:
Eyes of the Eagle
PERSONNEL AND RESOURCES
AFOSI has 2,738 active-duty, Reserve and civilian personnel. Of this number, 2,029 are federally credentialed special agents, who are drawn from all segments of the total force. There are 311 active-duty officers, 1,253 active-duty enlisted personnel, 785 civilians and 389 Reservists.
ORGANIZATION
In addition to the command's headquarters at Quantico, Va., 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 U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Region 6 with Pacific Air Forces, and Region 8 with Air Force Space Command. Region 7 provides investigative support to the other regions.
Located around the world are subordinate field units of these regions comprised of squadrons, detachments and operating locations. In sum, AFOSI operates 144 units in the continental U. S. and 63 units overseas.
While the regions serve the investigative needs of those aligned major commands, all AFOSI units and personnel remain independent of those commands, and their chains of command flow directly to AFOSI headquarters. Such organizational independence ensures unbiased investigations.
The AFOSI Investigations, Collections, Operations NEXUS (ICON) is a direct reporting unit to headquarters and is an established "Center of Excellence." The ICON'S mission is to maintain global command and control capabilities for AFOSI by facilitating rapid transfer of critical information between AFOSI units, individual AFOSI special agents, other agencies and the U. S. Air Force regarding criminal investigations, economic crimes, specialized services, as well as collections and sourcing operations management. The ICON monitors current events worldwide to identify immediate events of value to AFOSI leadership. and The ICON functions as a centralized organization facilitating decentralized execution throughout AFOSI.
OPERATIONS
Threat detection. AFOSI manages activities to detect and counter 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, as well as anti-terrorism and other force protection 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, compromise of Air Force test materials, black market activities, and other 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 non-appropriated 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 Department of Defense resources.
Specialized Services. AFOSI has numerous specialists who are invaluable in the successful resolution of investigations. They include technical specialists, polygraph personnel, behavioral scientists, computer experts and forensic advisers.
Defense Cyber Crime Center. AFOSI is the DoD executive agent for both the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory and the Defense Computer Investigations Training Program, which together comprise the Defense Cyber Crime Center. The forensics laboratory provides counterintelligence, criminal, and fraud computer-evidence processing, analysis, and diagnosis to DOD investigations. The investigations training program provides training in computer investigations and computer forensics to DOD investigators and examiners.
Training. 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, 11.5 - week Criminal Investigator Training Program with other federal law enforcement trainees. That course is followed by six weeks of AFOSI agency-specific coursework. Both courses offer new agents training in firearms and other weapons, defensive tactics, forensics, 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.
HISTORY
AFOSI was founded Aug. 1, 1948, at the suggestion of Congress to consolidate investigative activities in the U.S. Air Force. Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington created AFOSI and patterned it after the FBI. He appointed Special Agent Joseph Carroll, an 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.
INTERESTING FACTS
· It was an AFOSI agent who first alerted Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters of the attack from North Korea that began the Korean War in June of 1950.
· Sen. Arlen Specter is a former AFOSI member, as was Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, who passed away Sept. 11, 2000.
· AFOSI welcomes more than 230 new special agents into the organization each year.
· AFOSI is the second-most requested career-field choice in the Air Force.
CONTACTING AFOSI
AFOSI investigates a wide variety of serious offenses - espionage, terrorism, crimes against property, violence against people, larceny, computer hacking, acquisition fraud, drug use and distribution, financial misdeeds, military desertion, corruption of the contracting process, and any other illegal activity that undermines the mission of the U.S. Air Force or the Department of Defense. AFOSI units are located at most Air Force bases word-wide. If you need to contact AFOSI, either to provide a tip or share a concern, consult your base phone book or call your base operator for the telephone number of your base's AFOSI unit. If you do not have a base telephone book and don't know the number to the base operator, call toll free 1-877-246-1453 for the phone number of the AFOSI unit nearest you. Or if you prefer, send us an e-mail by clicking here:Crimebuster tips.
AFOSI Public Affairs Office
HQ/AFOSI Public Affairs
27130 Telegraph Road, Suite W-1683
Quantico, VA 22134
Current as of May 9, 2011
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