Cincinnati, like each of the FBI’s local field offices, has a community outreach program that complements and strengthens our many efforts to protect you, your businesses, and your families in concrete ways through a range of activities and initiatives. Our goal is to engage the communities we serve to develop relationships and build partnerships that can help to prevent crime.
To achieve this goal, we use a variety of programs and tools that enable us to interact with the community while working together to address challenges.
Among the programs we offer are:
FBI Citizens’ Academy
A program offered in each of the FBI’s field offices, the Citizens’ Academy provides community leaders with an inside look at the structure and operations of the FBI. Through presentations by special agents and other FBI experts, participants learn more about our mission, our methods, and our work to protect the community. Details
Multi-Cultural Advisory Council
This initiative brings together leaders from different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds to discuss with the FBI issues important to their communities. The group helps to build relationships based on mutual respect and understanding. Details
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A student in the Junior Special
Agent program
Community Relations Executive Seminar Training (CREST)
The CREST program enables the FBI to partner with organizations in the community to develop specialized training seminars helpful to the group and its members. The program is a shorter, more focused version of the Citizens’ Academy and is led by FBI special agents and professional staff. Presentations can include topics such as identity theft, cyber security, counterterrorism, gangs and violent crime, evidence recovery, or other subjects of interest to the host organization. Details
Director’s Community Leadership Award
Each year, the Cincinnati Division presents this prestigious award to an individual or organization that has worked to combat crime, terrorism, drugs, and/or violence in America. Details
Engaging Students and Young People (Adopt-A-School Program, Junior Special Agent Program, and FBI Teen Academy)
The Cincinnati Division seeks to create positive role models, to develop academic and social skills, and to prevent crime, drug, and gang associations among area youth. We work with parents, local schools, community organizations, and our law enforcement partners to stress positive choices and a healthy lifestyle. Among the programs that the FBI sponsors to help achieve these goals are the Adopt-A-School Program, the Junior Special Agent Program, and the FBI Teen Academy. Details
Special Agent Memorial Service
Each year during a memorial service, the Cincinnati Division remembers the lives of special agents who have made the ultimate sacrifice while working for the FBI. This memorial not only allows us to remember the dedicated agents who gave their lives to protect our country, but also serves as a reminder of the dangers that exist to employees in their jobs each day. To learn more about the brave agents who have lost their lives while protecting the public, visit the FBI’s Hall of Honor.
Community Events
Our office participates in a number of special community events each year. Special agents and professional staff give public speeches, presentations, and demonstrations to groups around the division. We visit schools, businesses, community centers, and other venues to talk about the work we do and ways members of the community can partner with us to help keep our neighborhoods safe. Details
Our recent activities include:
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A special agent speaks with Citizens’
Academy participants at the firearms range
FBI employees participated in National Night Out events in suburbs of Cincinnati and Columbus. Members of our Evidence Response Team (ERT) displayed their command post vehicle and talked to members of the community about evidence recovery techniques.
Personnel from the Cincinnati Field Office, the Columbus Resident Agency, and the Dayton Resident Agency participated in the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics. The goal of the event is to raise money and increase awareness of Ohio Special Olympics athletes and their accomplishments. The Law Enforcement Torch Run is the single largest year-round fund-raising event benefiting the Special Olympics in Ohio.
Our Multi-Cultural Advisory Council met to learn more about the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security. The featured speaker discussed efforts to strengthen civic engagement, protect civil liberties and redress procedures for individual citizens.
We hosted over 30 community leaders in our latest Citizens’ Academy class. Sessions were held concurrently in Cincinnati and Columbus for six straight weeks. Following these classroom sessions, the participants had an opportunity to attend a day at the firearms range, followed the next week by a formal graduation ceremony. Several of the graduates participated in an optional trip to FBI Headquarters in Washington and the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
Among our other ongoing efforts:
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A member of our Evidence Response Team
shows campers at the Fitton Family
YMCA how to cast shoe prints
Meeting with a number of civic organizations, religious, ethnic and minority groups to discuss issues in the community and ways the FBI can work with community leaders to help make our neighborhoods even more safe;
Sending our special agents and others from the FBI into schools, businesses, and civic meetings to explain emerging crime and security threats and to provide specific advice on how to prevent being victimized by these threats;
Supporting the graduates of our Citizens’ Academy program, who work together in local alumni chapters to create crime prevention programs and other initiatives that benefit the community;
Serving on committees and boards for businesses, schools, community groups, and social service organizations to help make our community an even better place in which to live;
Encouraging citizens to step forward to report crime and serve as witnesses in court; and
Partnering with the American Football Coaches Association and its National Child Identification Program to distribute Child ID kits at football games and other events.
For more information about these programs, contact our community outreach specialist at (513) 421-4310.