BASIC STATUTORY AUTHORITY OF BUREAU FUNCTIONS The fundamental authority for its basic original functions was vested in the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to the following legislation: Authority for the activities of the Bureau is contained in section 360 of the Revised Statutes, derived from 16 Statute 164, an act to establish the Department of Justice, dated June 22, 1870. Section 360 reads in part as follows: "*** The Attorney General may require any solicitor or officer of the Department of Justice to perform any duty required of the Department thereof." Section 361 of the Revised Statutes further bestows authority upon the Attorney General to direct any of the divisions, heads, or departments under the Department of Justice to perform any duties which he shall direct and in the Appropriation Act for the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Expenses of the Government for the year ending June 30, 1872 (16 Statute 497), an appropriation was provided for the detection and prosecution of crimes against the United States. Title 18, section 3052, United States Code (formerly section 300A of title 5, United States Code), as amended January 10, 1951, by Public Law No. 915, provides that "*** The Director, Associate Director, Assistant to the Director, assistant directors, inspectors, and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice may carry firearms, serve warrants and supenas issued under the authority of the United States and make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony." Under authority contained in 5 United States Code 340, supplement IV there was established under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice a division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be known as the Division of Identification and Information. Pursuant thereto, the Bureau shall be vested with the duty of acquiring, collecting, classifying, and preserving criminal identification and other crime records and the exchange of said criminal identification records with the duly authorized officials of governmental agencies, of States, cities, and penal institutions; and the cost, maintenance, and operation of said Bureau shall be paid from the appropriation "Detection and prosecution of crimes" for the respective fiscal years concerned, as otherwise provided. The FBI, as the investigative arm of the Department of Justice, has also been vested with subsequent authority for certain auxiliary specific and general investigative responsibilities by the Congress, the Attorney General and the President of the United States. Many of these responsibilities play a direct part in defense during the present emergency. PERCENTAGE OF CONVICTIONS Fiscal year 1953: Convictions were obtained against 96.9 percent of the persons brought to trial during the fiscal year 1953. Guilty pleas: Of the 9,859 convictions obtained during the fiscal year 1953, a total of 9,036 (91.7 percent) were on guilty pleas, while the remaining 823 (8.3 percent) were the result of trial before judge or jury. Significance of guilty pleas: Based on 1. Reflects the result of the excellent investigative work of FBI agents. 2. Represents considerable savings to Government in court costs. an estimated average cost per case of $2,873.86 (figure appearing in May 1953 issue of Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, in an article by Mr. I eland L. Tolman entitled "The Taxpayers' Stake in the Court," representing result of analysis of 3,405 Federal district court jury trials), the 9.036 convictions on guilty pleas represent a total savings of $25,968,198.96 to the Government. Summary of statistics for the 1953 fiscal year—Continued 1 In addition to the foregoing savings and recoveries, an adjudication by the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals of the Texas City disaster Federal tort claims litigation following an FBI investigation resulted in savings to the Government amounting to $224,374,328. Renegotiation Act claims adjusted in favor of the Government, $17,934,841; not included in other totals. 2 There was a total of 7 life sentences: class 7, 2; class 61, 1; class 70, 2; class 89, 2; and 5 death sentences: Class 70, 4; class 89, 1. The FBI Identification Division was established July 1, 1924. Its fingerprint files are international in scope and serve as a central repository for all fingerprint records. During the fiscal year 1953 the Bureau received for handling 5,192,861 sets of fingerprint records, a daily average of 20,607 prints. It is estimated fingerprint records to be referred during the fiscal years 1954 and 1955 will exceed the 1953 volumes by amounts ranging as high as 8 percent. The continued national emergency forecasts no decrease in identification functions. In connection with its cooperative responsibilities, the FBI performs fingerprint checks for other Government agencies having defense responsibilities. The Identification Division also renders aid in the control of aliens, such as the work of checking fingerprints of displaced persons, of immigrants arriving in this country, and applicants for citizenship. The Bureau, in addition, continues to experience heavy fingerprint receipts under the Government employees security program; the screening of bad security risks under the port security program involving vital shipping facilities; the identification of unknown dead, particularly those concerned with military casualties and other types of violent deaths; and miscellaneous applicant prints. In the latter category, trends have reflected particularly pronounced upward surge over past 3-year period as indicated by receipts of applicant prints numbering 980,852 (1951) versus 1,357,751 (1953), or 38 percent increase. The defense mobilization program will cause heavy fingerprint receipts for an indefinite future period involving the processing of fingerprints of military personnel, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Maritime Service. Criminal fingerprints received from law-enforcement agencies throughout the United States and a number of foreign countries have increased 10.9 percent over the past 3-year period: 1,333,067 (1951) versus 1,478,512 (1953). Based upon the trend of current receipts, the prevailing high crime rate throughout the Nation, and considering our fingerprint responsibilities occasioned by various programs, it is estimated a minimum of 5,641,761 fingerprints will be referred for processing during the fiscal year 1955, a daily average of 22,125. |