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United States Army Criminal Investigation Division
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The United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) is a federal law enforcement agency that investigates serious crimes and violations of civilian and military law within the United States Army.
Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, it was established as a major Army command in 1971. Worldwide, the organization has slightly less than 3,000 soldiers and civilians, of which approximately 900 are Special Agents.
The acronym "USACIDC" is used to refer to the Army command itself, while criminal investigation personnel and operations are commonly referred to using the shortened acronym "CID", which has its history in the original Criminal Investigation Division formed during World War I and is still retained today for continuity purposes.
History
During World War I, General John J. Pershing ordered the creation of a separate organization within the Military Police Corps to prevent and detect crime among the American Expeditionary Force in France. The newly created Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was headed by a division chief who served as the advisor to the Provost Marshal General on all matters relating to criminal investigations. However, operational control of CID still remained with individual provost marshals, and there was no central control of investigative efforts within the organization, resulting in limitations. At the end of the war, the United States Army was reduced in size during the transition to peacetime and the size of CID shrank dramatically.
With the onset of World War II in December 1941, the armed forces rapidly swelled in size and the Army once again became a force of millions, and the need for a self-policing law enforcement system rematerialized. However, by early 1942, investigations of crimes committed by military personnel were still considered to be a "command function" to be conducted by local military police personnel. The Office of The Provost Marshal General felt that the agents in the Investigations Department were not properly trained for criminal investigations, the only investigations taking place at the time being personnel security background investigations for individuals being considered for employment in defense industries. As the Army had expanded, the crime rate had risen, and local commanders did not have the personnel or resources to conduct adequate investigations. By December 1943, the Provost Marshal General was charged with providing staff supervision over all criminal investigations, and a month later in January 1944, the Criminal Investigation Division was reestablished under the Provost Marshal General's Office. The organization exercised supervision over criminal investigation activities, coordinated investigations between commands, dictated plans and policies, and set standards for criminal investigators.
After the war, the CID was once again decentralized, with control of criminal investigations transferred to area commands in the 1950s and further down to the installation level in the 1960s. A Department of Defense study in 1964 entitled Project Security Shield made clear that complete recentralization of the Army's criminal investigative effort was needed in order to produce a more efficient and responsive worldwide capability. Beginning in 1965, criminal investigative elements were reorganized into CID groups corresponding to geographical areas in the United States. In 1966, the concept was introduced to units in Europe and the Far East. However, this arrangement did not fully resolve all the coordination problems, and in 1969, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Agency was established to supervise all CID operations worldwide.
As the agency did not have command authority, in March 1971, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird directed the Secretary of the Army to form a CID command with command and control authority over all Army-wide CID assets. On September 17, 1971, the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command was established as a major Army command, vested with command and control of all CID activities and resources worldwide.
Mission
The primary mission of the CID, according to the organization's website, is to:
- Investigate serious felony level crime (murder, rape, kidnapping, child abuse, etc.)
- Conduct sensitive and/or serious investigations
- Collect, analyze and disseminate criminal intelligence
- Conduct protective service operations
- Provide forensic laboratory support
- Maintain Army criminal records
Additionally, CID may perform the following special missions:
- Perform logistical security, from manufacturers to soldiers on the battlefield
- Develop criminal intelligence to develop countermeasures to combat subversive activities on the battlefield
- Criminal investigations to include war crimes and in some cases crimes against coalition forces and host nation personnel)
- Protective service operations for key personnel on and off the battlefield
Organization
In addition to United States Army Criminal Investigation Command headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, CID commands six major subordinate organizations:
- 3rd MP Group (CID), at Fort Gillem, Georgia
- 6th MP Group (CID), at Fort Lewis, Washington
- 202nd MP Group (CID), at Seckenheim, Germany
- 701st MP Group (CID), at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
- U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, at Fort Gillem, Georgia
- U.S. Army Crime Records Center, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Uniform
As criminal investigators, CID Special Agents dress in professional suits, business/casual attire, or comfortable clothing when appropriate for their daily investigative responsibilities. Due to the nature of their work, undercover assignments dictate further variations of attire to support specific undercover mission requirements.
During special times and circumstances, CID personnel may wear military uniforms.
In Popular Culture
- CID agents in the novel Catch-22 try to find out who has been forging Washington Irving's signature on official documents.
- John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe portray CID agents in The General's Daughter.
- CID Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Hollis Mann worked with NCIS in a few episodes of the CBS television show NCIS; this is however, highly inaccurate, as commissioned officers assigned to CID are only administrative in nature, unlike the CID special agents who conduct investigations.
- Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines portray CID agents in Off Limits.
- On M*A*S*H, Edward Winter played Col. Flagg, a cryptic Army intelligence officer who alternately claimed to be in the employ of the CIA, the CID, and the CIC.
- In the video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Meryl Silverburgh and the Rat Patrol Team 01 are employed by the CID.
- Jack Reacher, anti-hero of the best-selling series of thrillers wriiten by Lee Child is an ex-US Army Military Police Major, who for some of his 13 years as an MP ran his own CID unit. In all of the books, Reacher alludes to his years as an ex-MP. The unit reunites, in the book Bad Luck and Trouble. The book The Enemy is a prequel, set while Reacher is still a serving MP.
See also
JAG Corps
Federal law enforcement
Sister UCMJ military law enforcement agencies
References
 United States military law enforcement |
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