The FBI and the Justice Department (DOJ) are ramping up recruitment and relaxing hiring requirements to rebuild depleted workforces, a move current and former officials criticize as lowering long-accepted professional standards.
Mounting staffing shortages prompted these changes. The DOJ said it lost nearly 1,000 assistant U.S. attorneys, and the National Security Division reported a 40% drop in prosecutors.
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FBI Director Kash Patel, aiming to “let good cops be cops,” introduced nine-week training for agency transfers and waived assessments for support staff seeking to become agents.
While the FBI defends these moves as “streamlining” rather than lowering standards, critics argue that waiving assessments and accelerating promotions risk eroding expertise in complex investigations.
The Justice Department also recently suspended a policy requiring at least one year of experience for prosecutors, now hiring candidates directly out of law school to fill vacancies.
