Naval Criminal Investigative Service

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This article is about the United States Navy's Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). For more information on other meanings of NCIS, visit its disambiguation page.

Image:NCIS Badge.jpg

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the United States Department of the Navy's primary law enforcement agency to the former Naval Investigative Service. NCIS was originally part of the Office of Naval Intelligence, being tasked with detection and counterintelligence missions. Later, criminal investigations were also added to the agency's mission, with these tasks being performed mainly by civilian agents. This structure was adopted from the practice of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. This differs from the practice of the Army's Criminal Investigations Division (USACIDC) which relies primarily upon military personnel to conduct investigations.

During the 1970s, NIS civilian agents gained civil service status and the agency separated from ONI, becoming an Echelon II command directly accountable to the Chief of Naval Operations. In 1985 Cathal Flynn, a former Naval Special Warfare Command officer, became the first flag rank officer to command NIS. During this time NIS also assumed command of the anti-terrorist intelligence mission for the Navy, opening the Navy Anti-terrorist Alert Center (ATAC).

On 19 April 1989, an explosion aboard the battleship USS Iowa ripped through her Number Two 16-inch gun turret, killing 47 crewmen. The NIS Investigators at first theorized that a crewman had detonated an explosive device in the turret due to the end of a homosexual affair with another sailor, who survived. This theory was later abandoned, and the cause of the explosion is generally believed to have been static electricity igniting loose powder.

During the 1980's, Commander Richard Marcinko led Red Cell, an anti-terrorist unit that tested Navy security. Cmdr. Marcinko claims to have infiltrated seemingly impenetrable, highly secured bases, nuclear submarines, ships and other purported "secure areas", including the U.S. Presidential plane Air Force One. He claims to have defeated NCIS personnel, embarrassing several superior officers in the process. NIS (the forerunner of NCIS) launched an investigation into the purchase of hand grenades by Navy units under Marcinko's command. Marcinko maintains that he was the subject of a witchhunt; his detractors claim that he was able to beat any other charges with support from powerful governmental figures. Marcinko details his arrest and confinement in the last chapters of his auto-biography.

In 1992 the NIS mission was again clarified and became a mostly civilian agency. Roy D. Nedrow, a former United States Secret Service (USSS) executive, became the first civilian director of the newly renamed NCIS. Virtually all NCIS investigators, criminal, counterintelligence, and force protection personnel are now sworn civilian personnel with powers of arrest and warrant service. The exception are a small number of reserve military elements engaged in counterintelligence support.

Current missions for NCIS include criminal investigations, security clearance background checks, force protection, cross-border drug enforcement, anti-terrorism, and counterintelligence.

In 2003, a television show (NCIS) was started on CBS based on the NCIS.

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