At the hearings on the failure to protect Donald Trump on the campaign trail, Christopher Wray, characteristically, was evasive and ill-informed. Concurrently, it’s useful to trace the downward trajectory of his agency.
In 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a new set of physical requirements for its field officers, which is still in force. For the first time since 2000, the Bureau established a fitness test. It is puzzling that agents have not had such a test over those 15 years, whereas, in the 1980s and 1990s, physical fitness testing was mandatory.
As if announcing such tests somehow represents a revelation, the director of the FBI cited that protecting the lives of American citizens, as well as FBI colleagues, "may well depend" on FBI agents' physical abilities, such as running, fighting, and shooting.
Masters of the Universe
What are these new requirements? Brace yourself. Men ages 20 to 29 must complete 38 sit-ups in one minute, 29 push-ups without stopping, a 300-meter sprint (a bit more than three football fields) in 59 seconds, and a 1.5-mile run in 12:29 minutes. Yes, you read it correctly—men in their prime are required to do 29 push-ups.
I have friends in their 50s and 60s who can easily do more than 50 pushups. I'm past 60 and I can do 120 on a bad day. I know women who can do more than 29. Yet, these requirements are announced as if they represent a badge of honor: The director back then, James Comey, told his underlings, "I want the American people to be able to take one glance at you and think, 'There is a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.'"
Women, ages 20 to 29, must complete 32 sit-ups in one minute, 15 consecutive push-ups, a 300-meter sprint in 71 seconds, and a 1.5-mile run in 15:05 minutes.
A Free Pass for "Old" Folks
As agents age, their physical requirements decrease remarkably. Men, ages 50 to 59, must complete 24 sit-ups in a minute, 13 consecutive push-ups, a 300-meter run in 83.2 seconds, and a 1.5-mile run in 15:14. Women, ages 50 to 59, must complete 14 sit-ups in a minute, a whopping five push-ups without stopping, a 300-meter sprint in 113.2 seconds, and a 1.5 mile run in 19:10.
Is anybody impressed by these benchmarks? Should anyone be impressed? Amazingly, these minuscule FBI fitness requirements have been heralded within the Bureau as recalling " the spirit of the Bureau's first director, J. Edgar Hoover, who translated his obsessions over his own weight into concern over his agents' well-being."
Are agents who have to do 29 push-ups supposed to inspire us, make us feel safer, and be easily identified as special? Special? To whom? What an unfit nation we have become. And, most alarmingly, how much lower can our standards drop?
Flabby Bodies, Flabby Procedures?
There's probably only a fleeting connection here at best, but could the low standards of today's FBI, in any way, be connected to its recent the shoddy law enforcement standards? Since at least the time of the Trump inauguration, the top echelon of the Bureau has exhibited a discernable lack of candor and professionalism. It has mis-executed or over-executed the powers bestowed upon them.
Dozens of upper management and top officials within the FBI have proven to be ethically if not legally unfit for duty. Their biased investigative procedures during Wray’s reign should make us all shudder. How, as a nation, can we survive with our top law enforcement agency so compromised across so many fronts?
Does the lack of rigor following the law and administering justice, among the FBI's top officials, in some way filter down to the rank-and-file? It would not be out of bounds to presume that the lower fitness standards follow suit.
Impressive – Not
Can the agency be reinvigorated? Can it once again serve as a beacon of effective intelligence gathering, national security, and law enforcement? Yes, but it'll take some doing.
In any case, when hundreds of schoolboys, in any county across the U.S., can greatly exceed any of the FBI’s is physical requirements without breaking a sweat, are we supposed to be impressed by the FBI? Law enforcement professionals from all types of agencies, from throughout our history, who have since passed on, must be turning over in their graves.
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