Frank Fisher of the Albuquerque FBI addresses the Rotary Club of Los Alamos Tuesday at the Los Alamos Golf Course Community Room. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

FBI Media Coordinator Frank Fisher traveled from Albuquerque Tuesday to speak to the Rotary Club of Los Alamos.

He spoke of the importance of engaging the public in helping to keep criminals off the street.

“We’re very proud of our story … we work very hard, but as J. Edgar Hoover said, ‘We can’t do anything without the help of the American people,’” Fisher said. “Let us know if something seems suspicious or just doesn’t seem right … if you see something – say something.”

Fisher has been the media coordinator for the FBI in Albuquerque since August 2010. Besides advising FBI management on media matters, his duties include community outreach, congressional liaison, back-up field photographer, serving on the FBI Evidence Response Team, and working on EEO and diversity issues.

Before joining the FBI, Fisher was an assistant metro editor at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for four years, and spent 16 years writing and editing for The Associated Press wire service in various posts around the country. He also is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army.

“I have the best job in the world,” Fisher told the Rotarians gathered Tuesday at the Los Alamos Golf Course. “Never since the military have I felt this sense of teamwork and this sense of importance of the mission – to keep people safe.”

The FBI has 10 priorities, he said, including terrorism, counterintelligence, cyber crime, weapons of mass destruction, public corruption, civil rights, organized crime, white-collar crime, violent crimes and major thefts.

The Albuquerque Division consists of both agent and support personnel with extensive experience and expertise. Its professional support staff includes intelligence and financial analysts, investigative specialists, support services technicians, language specialists, paralegals, electronic technicians, information technology specialists, and security personnel.

“Our Evidence Response Team is the largest in the country,” Fisher said.

The team conducts crime scene investigations and collects physical evidence using the techniques of forensic science. The Evidence Response Team is trained and equipped to collect and record physical evidence in accordance with current scientific standards and procedures so that the evidence can be effectively analyzed in a forensic laboratory and stand up under scrutiny in a court of law.

Fisher spoke of Los Alamos and said that the FBI works very closely with Los Alamos National Laboratory. He added that the FBI has 70 offices overseas that step in when crimes are perpetrated against Americans overseas or perpetrated against Americans in the U.S. from overseas.

Fisher discussed ways in with the Los Alamos community may get involved with the FBI.

One way is to participate in the FBI Citizens Academy, which offers members of the community an up close and personal look at how the FBI operates. The program brings the community’s civic, business and religious leaders together to experience firsthand how the FBI investigates crimes and threats to national security and learn about the various tools and techniques employed to carry out its mission.

Citizens Academy class members are nominated by a Bureau employee or a previous academy graduate. Classes generally meet weekly in the evenings for three hours, for about nine weeks, and are taught by agents and experts from various divisions.

The FBI Community Relations Executive Seminar Training (CREST) program is conducted in partnership with a community group at an offsite location. Participants learn about the mission, goals, history, and internal workings of the FBI, but the sessions are customized to meet the needs of each organization. For example, a hospital might request a presentation on healthcare fraud and a business organization may request a talk on cyber security or major thefts.

CREST serves as a means to exchange information between the FBI and participating communities.

To learn more about CREST and the FBI Citizens Academy, visit fbi.gov.