FBI Appoints 22-Year Veteran as Head of Los Angeles Division

J. Stephen Tidwell, a 22-year FBI veteran who supervised the FBI’s security efforts at the Summer Olympics in Athens last year, has been named the new head of the bureau’s Los Angeles division.

Tidwell could not be reached for comment, but numerous current and former government sources said the 52-year-old FBI official’s appointment will be officially announced this week. They said he is expected to take over the office within weeks, replacing Richard T. Garcia, who retired at the end of July.

As head of the Los Angeles division, Tidwell will direct more than 1,100 FBI agents and analysts in seven counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

The field office is the FBI’s third largest after those in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Tidwell currently heads the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, a unit created in 1994 to respond in the U.S. and abroad to terrorist acts, hostage situations and other crises.

A native of Big Spring, Texas, Tidwell graduated in 1974 from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, before serving eight years as a police officer in Richardson, Texas.

After joining the FBI in 1983, he was assigned to field offices in Dallas; Mobile, Ala.; and Baltimore. He served two years on the protection detail for the FBI director before being promoted in 1989 to supervisory special agent in the Information Management Division at FBI headquarters.

In 1991, he returned to the Baltimore field office as an investigative agent. Four years later, he was promoted to a supervisory post directing investigations of violent crimes and narcotics trafficking. He was later selected to run the Baltimore division’s Annapolis office.

In 1998, he was named chief of an international training unit at FBI headquarters in Washington. The following year, Tidwell was designated assistant special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City field office.

In July 2001, he returned to FBI headquarters after being promoted to inspector.

In March 2002, Tidwell was appointed special agent in charge of the Louisville, Ky., field office. A year later, he was designated deputy assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters.

In November 2003, Tidwell was promoted to run the Critical Incident Response Group.

Last summer, he was the on-site commander when the FBI sent more than 100 agents to the Olympic Games in Athens.