Oklahoma Special Agent Says FBI Faces Challenges In 3 Categories

The new Special Agent in charge of Oklahoma for the FBI said agents are facing many challenges.

Special Agent Ed Gray said cases related to tribal jurisdiction, cyber-crimes, and civil rights investigations take up much of their time.

The FBI said they've opened nearly 2,000 new cases since July of 2020, when the Supreme Court made its ruling on tribal jurisdiction.

That ruling gave the FBI in Oklahoma primary jurisdiction over nearly half the state.

Since then, they've added 80 agents and support staff, including people who come from out of state to spend 90 days in Oklahoma to work specific cases.

"These cases that we're focused on are the most egregious, violent offenders. So, they're murderers. They're rapes. They're crimes against children, child abuse cases. Those cases are being pursued as heavily as they were in the past, and in some cases, maybe even stronger," said Ed Gray.

He admitted, non-violent and some property crimes don't get prosecuted.

"We're aware of those and we will work those when we can, but it's not just an FBI issue. It's a judicial system issue," said Gray.

He said there's only so many judges, probation officers, US Attorneys and time in the court room to see everything through.

Gray said violent crimes on tribal territory are huge priorities of his; however, they continue to address terrorism cases, cybercrime, counterintelligence cases and traditional violent crimes that they continue to see across the state.

That's done in a number of ways. Gray said the FBI is involved in at least 10 different task forces, with close to 300 task force officers that they partner with.

They also partner with agencies across the state including OHP, city police, tribal police, OSBI, and the DEA.

"We depend on them far more than they depend on us, and we can't get that job done without those partnerships," said Gray.

Another priority of Gray's is cyber-crimes because almost every case involves technology in some way.

"The number of, you know, attempts and amount of information that is stolen from US companies is just astronomical. It occurs every day," said Gray.

Gray said they've seen an increase in cyber-attacks, such as ransomware attacks.

"Those can come from criminal organizations. Those can come from foreign state actors," said Gray. "From the national security side, we have foreign state actors that target our cyber infrastructure, target businesses."

Gray said civil rights issues like officer involved shootings are also high on their priority list.

He said 73 officers were killed in the line of duty in the US last year and that the country is on pace to meet that again this year.

Gray is focused on finding a solution to the problem.

"Taking care of the bad actors within law enforcement through civil rights investigations, but also highlighting the amount of good work that we do is equally important," said Gray.

Gray said the FBI is always looking to hire people from all kinds of backgrounds.