Search FBI File For Real?

Yes, good question. You often hear the claim, 'search FBI files online' and of course it's totally erroneous. Why's that? Because only law enforcement agents involved in an ongoing investigation can access this data, much as you see being done in an episode of CSI. Although in CSI, the computer graphics are dramatic and miraculous matchings are made, seemingly in milliseconds! 

What is an FBI file? Since Edgar J. Hoover founded the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, the file has been a fingerprint identification record. Attached is a rap sheet, meaning a person's criminal record history - being a list of their convictions.

The information is sent in to form a central record, by all the various law enforcement agencies, at local county, state and federal levels. Changes to a record can only be made by going back to the original supplier of an information, such as the Miami Dade County Courts.... and this leads us to your legal right to view and correct your OWN FBI identification record. You cannot search others' records or look them up on The Internet. It is an area of considerable security and privacy.

The Freedom Of Information Act, or F.O.I.A., is a federal U.S. law that provides for you, the individual, to view whatever files and records the United States government holds on you. If you view a record and find inconsistencies or factual errors you are permitted to apply for correction of that government record. This is inscribed in the FOIA and even the FBI is powerless to prevent this viewing and correcting process. Sometimes there may be some bureaucratic resistance experienced by the applicant. There are lawyers and attorneys who specialize in freedom of information applications. The process is designed in the interests of justice and governmental transparency. In these respects the United States of America has a system to be respected and protected when you consider the dictatorships and cronyism that exist in some other, less fortunate jurisdictions.

Have you ever searched the archives of the Federal Bureau of investigation? Wow  - - I have and these FBI archives make fascinating reading, about files and investigations on famous celebrities like Frank Sinatra with his alleged Mafia connections, Marilyn Monroe getting familiar with Mr President and even Albert Einstein with his alleged communist party associations. At the time of Mcarthyism the whole country was paranoid about the dangers of communism. Many of these fears proved unfounded as communist countries these days are rapidly becoming capitalistic, democratic countries. These changes are forced by largely economic pressures related to the benefits of competition in a free market economy. 

Such FBI archives are now part of the public record and you can view fascinations, intrigue and exciting recall of the events that stirred the American people half a century ago. Times and concerns change drastically. Crime has turned towards computers and identity theft with the arrival of The Information Age. And so the FBI has created an Internet Crimes section. The Department of Homeland Security didn't even exist last century. 2001 saw a massive tightening of national security and a new integration between the CIA, the FBI and overseas Intelligence agencies such as the British MI6 and Australia's ASIO, Israel's MOSSAD, etc.

Thank you for reading this intriguing hub page.

Geoff Dodd