Cronkhite (2013) gives credit to Hoover for taking the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and professionalizing it and transforming in to a respected agency by applying the administrative concepts of the day. At the time of his appointment, the bureau was known at the Bureau of Investigation and only later became known as the FBI. Hoover’s leadership and molding the FBI into a world class law enforcement organization is his most important contribution to the administration of law enforcement.
J. Edgar over assumed leadership of the Bureau of Investigation, which later became the (FBI), on June 24, 1924 (J. Edgar Hoover, n.d.). He would serve in this position as the agency’s director until his death in 1972 (Cooper, 2011). During his tenure at the bureau, Hoover helped to modernize the bureau into a model of excellence by instating reforms
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At the time Hoover assumed control of the bureau as its director agents did not have the power to arrest nor were they permitted to carry weapons (Encyclopedia of Biography, 2010). At the time, law enforcement was seen as the task of state and local governments and the FBI only had jurisdiction over a small number of criminal offenses (Encyclopedia of Biography, 2010). By the end of his career he had expanded the scope of crimes where the FBI had jurisdiction. Hoover was also responsible for the beginnings of the FBI crime lab and its information system. Hoover understood the need for technology and created the first FBI laboratory that could analyze blood and determine blood type and offered these services to other law enforcement agencies (Cooper, 2011). He was also responsible for understanding the value of information and intelligence. Hoover created an index system to coordinate information about suspected criminals before the computer age (Cooper,