FBI Academy Seeks to Take Mystery Out of Its Activities

To many people, the FBI is a big mystery, a secret organization clouded in myth that Hollywood helped create.

But with the FBI getting more involved in local crime, the bureau is trying to demystify itself.

Saturday at the Peter Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, the FBI concluded its first Citizens’ Academy, in which Los Angeles County residents learned some of the details of what agents do.

“We’re trying to dispel the myth and put a face on the FBI,” said James DeSarno Jr., assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office. “The citizens deserve to know and be aware of how the FBI does its job.”

Since 1991, when murder rates soared across the county, the FBI has become more involved in trying to solve crimes that traditionally have been investigated by local agencies, such as major street gang activity, DeSarno said.

“Because of that, we feel we needed a better relationship with community leaders,” DeSarno said.

Religious, labor, medical and government leaders are among those who have been invited to participate in seven weekly three-hour sessions, most of them at the FBI office on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood.

The academy will become an annual event.

Church administrator Dan Morgan said Saturday’s program was “wonderful and a great show.”

Even though his daughter, Voviette, is an FBI agent, he said the Citizens’ Academy allowed him to learn considerably more about the bureau.

“I heard things they do that I could never pry from my daughter,” he said.

His daughter said the graduates can serve as ambassadors for the bureau.

With participants on a hillside, a silver Chevrolet Suburban containing seven black-clad SWAT agents pulled up.

SWAT Cmdr. Steve Oda explained the mock situation to the crowd--criminals were holed up in a house. Using a noise device to startle them, agents stormed the building, firing weapons, securing the location and capturing the criminals.

Oda explained SWAT’s goal.

“A successful mission is when no one--the agents, the hostages and the criminals--no one gets hurt,” said Oda, adding that in the roughly 200 situations he’s been involved in, no team member has fired a gun.

“But we want to make it clear to the subjects if they decide to resist, they will lose.”

Another student, Chaplain Jim Kemper, said, “You begin to understand the complexities of the FBI and what they do.”

Jim Paules, a health care manager and another academy grad, agreed.

“I got much of my thoughts about the FBI from Hollywood and ‘The X Files,’ ” he said. “I was not too excited to learn that L. A. is the bank robbery capital of the country, but I feel a lot better knowing these people are around.”