Text of Senator Charles Schumer's Letter to Robert Mueller Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Hon. Robert Mueller
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20429

Dear Director Mueller: With bank robberies in New York City up an unprecedented 330 percent since 1999, I was surprised to learn that the New York City FBI field office had a net loss of 90 FBI agents over the same period of time.

In 1999, there were 1,164 FBI agents in the New York City field office. As of last week, there were only 1,074 FBI agents stationed there.

In 1999, there were 141 bank robberies in New York City. This year, the number has skyrocketed - while there were 59 bank robberies in New York City from January 1 through April 13 of 2002, there were 159 during the same period of 2003. If the rate of bank robberies holds steady through the rest of this year, there will be 563 bank robberies in New York City by December 31 - an increase of 300% since 1999.

As you know, the Justice Department's 2004 budget submission to Congress states that the average annual cost for an FBI agent is less than $138,000 - including salary, training, supplies, and equipment. I am writing today to ask you to allocate $12.4 million to restore the 90-agents cut from the New York City field office.

We have all been working hard to get additional resources to fight terrorism, but that doesn't mean we can neglect traditional crime. I want to be clear that the FBI agents in the New York field office - particularly since September 11 - have been doing great work and are some of the best law enforcement professionals anywhere. We in New York are grateful to each and every one of them - the only problem is that there aren't enough of them.

Fighting violent crime and fighting terrorists should not be an either-or proposition. With enough people in law enforcement - as many people as we once had - we can do both in New York. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator