Traverse City has an FBI office?

Yes, and you won’t find its address nor its leader’s name listed anywhere. Yet the FBI afforded The Ticker a rare, behind-the-scenes look at its TC operations, and some things might just surprise you.

For starters, the office isn’t glamorous or a scene from a Matt Damon thriller; it looks more like an insurance office.

Still, bulletproof glass encloses the reception area, and most visitors must pass through a metal detector and a thorough pat-down. Once inside, you might just catch a glimpse of the weapon vaults, evidence lockers or pistol-carrying federal officers.

The more welcoming surprises begin when Special Agent S.L. (his name withheld for security purposes), a very fit, youngish-looking 44-year-old, introduces himself. Relaxed and easygoing, he looks every bit the part of the stock broker and realtor he once was before joining the agency. Yet this is a guy who passed the agency’s rigorous physical and intellectual standards; only three percent of applicants make the grade.

The Traverse City office – called in FBI parlance an “RA,” or resident agency – has a tiny staff: just three agents, plus one front desk person who handles calls (due to a recent retirement, there are temporarily only two agents). That seems especially bare-bones considering the local office covers ten counties with a total population of about 300,000.

At times, the FBI might look as if it has endless resources in the region; sixty agents descended on a Suttons Bay home for a raid a few years ago. But that is far from the norm.

The power of the FBI – especially in more sparsely populated areas like northern Michigan – lies in its close relationships with city, county and state law enforcement. S.L. can call on those resources for backup when he serves a warrant or expects trouble of any kind. If needed, he can also rely upon fellow FBI agents in other Michigan jurisdictions. And of course he can depend upon the FBI’s national resources, like its fingerprinting records (West Virginia), main lab (Quantico, Virginia) and specialized squads stationed at the D.C. headquarters.

There is plenty of action, make no mistake. But the demands of the job go well beyond just being physical fit and able to shoot straight. As with any federal bureaucracy, there’s also more than enough paperwork.

“There’s a saying in the FBI. ‘If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen,’” says S.L.

That penchant for documentation, he explains, could have its roots in the agency’s aversion to having a court case thrown out because of faulty procedures. It could also explain why today’s agents are well-educated and must be quick studies in investigative procedures. According to S.L., the agency generally recruits accountants, lawyers, linguists or those with “specialized backgrounds,” meaning significant workplace experience.

“My first squad had a Ph.D, a Naval Academy grad and a Harvard grad,” he adds.

His own background includes a B.S. degree in Computer Aided Design from Eastern Michigan University and employment as a designer in the auto industry, followed by stints in business and a MBA from the University of Florida. All the while, he was intrigued with what it would be like to become a FBI agent.

S.L. is not alone.

“There’s a mystique about the agency,” he says. “It’s the premier law enforcement agency in the world, and people want to be part of a great thing.”

If S.L. is any indication, once they get some experience in the job, agents develop a sense of humor, which belies the stereotype of the deadpan FBI. For example, quirky tips to the FBI – something S.L. knows a lot about since he supervised the agency’s national hotline at the D.C. headquarters for two years – provide plenty of fodder.

“At about 1,000 calls a day, that’s some 700,000 tips in those two years,” he says. “We’d get calls from people who think we’re tapping their phones, or thinking they somehow worked for the FBI, or asking where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.”

But not all tips were funny.

S.L. recalls two bomb threats – one claiming the British Parliament was going to be attacked, the other warning that a U.S. naval base in Spain would be blown up. Both cases turned out to be false alarms, but they underscore the seriousness of the job.

He adds that citizens should feel free to call the FBI if they notice something suspicious. “Sometimes they’re afraid to call. But we want them to contact us," he says. "We can figure out whether it applies to the FBI or not.”

Another myth S.L. likes to dispel is that FBI agents spend most of their time screeching around corners on two wheels as they respond to 911 calls. In truth, the FBI, as its name implies, is primarily an investigative agency. And in a small town like Traverse City, two or three agents might respond, say, to a bomb scare, but there’s a good chance local law enforcement will be there first.

“One of the main things we do is support investigations by local and state officers. We work well together,” he says.

S.L. does say Hollywood might be a bit closer to the truth when it portrays the agency as simply playing a major role in gathering intelligence – especially since the 9/11 attacks.

“Now it’s not just the number of ongoing cases," he says. "But also the question is, ‘Are we getting all the intelligence we need to protect the American people?'"