DCSA Director Conducts a Ride Along with a Background Investigator

Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Director David Cattler, who has been the agency director since March 2024, recently accompanied a special agent background investigator as a ride along while conducting field work on multiple background investigations. The director wanted to better understand the multiple mission areas throughout DCSA, and this ride along gave him a first-hand look at the largest piece of the agency’s mission – conducting background investigations.

The special agent, who has been a background investigator for 15 years, was excited to see Director Cattler take a direct approach to better understand what it is investigators do at the field level. The investigator was very appreciative to have had the opportunity to be the first field agent to provide that experience to a DCSA Director. Included on the ride along were Enhanced Subject Interviews (ESI) with two individuals, and a third interview with an employment source at a cleared industry facility. Following the interviews, they traveled to the county courthouse and local police departments to obtain law enforcement records.

During the ride along, the special agent and the DCSA director discussed a variety of ways in which the investigator position has evolved over the years, particularly post-COVID. Specifically, they discussed the process in which investigators canvas neighborhoods and the struggles they have at times to secure interview space for applicants or sources. The ride along approach is popular among law enforcement agencies and gives supervisors and managers insight on what is going on out there on the street. It is refreshing to see the DCSA director using this same concept.

Link to the full release here.