CHICAGO (WLS) — There’s a new special agent in charge of the FBI office in Chicago, and he’s no stranger to the city.
Doug DePodesta sat down to speak exclusively with ABC7 and said he returned home to help keep the city safe.
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DePodesta is a beat cop who became an FBI agent working narcotics, gangs, and technology and then was tapped to run some of the agency’s biggest portfolios.
FBI Chicago Field Office Special Agent in Charge Doug DePodesta said he wants to get to know the public so they will trust him and an agency that is always front and center.
“I can’t even say it is a dream come true, because I’m not even sure if I could’ve dreamt it, right?” DePodesta said.
DepPodesta, 54, is back in Chicago after managing the FBI’s 650 installations worldwide and serving as the number two agent in Michigan over the last six years. He said his travels have shown him law enforcement partnerships in the Chicago region are the best anywhere, and that gives him hope.
“Homicides are over 20%, non-fatal shootings are down,” DePodesta said. “I think that’s all in a great part to our partnerships The task forces is in the relationships we’ve built here with federal law enforcement and local law enforcement.”
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray appointed DePodesta to the top job in Chicago 10 days before the Democratic National Convention last summer. Since then, he has established a relationship with Wray’s successor, Kash Patel, and acknowledges budgets are “constrained.”
“It is important to save money,” DePodesta said. “I will tell you our budget here in the Chicago Field Office has not changed.”
Beyond the bank robberies and innumerable fraud investigations, a big part of the spend at the fourth largest FBI operation in the country centers on counterterrorism. DePodesta played key roles on the Mumbai massacre investigations, the prosecution of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and marshaling the technology to stay ahead of China’s intelligence gathering efforts. That is what keeps him up at night.
“So I will tell you the Chinese government has 50 to one agents working on cyber attacks in our country than we have people defending it,” DePodesta said. “It is alarming that they are doing everything to get into our corporations to steal our intellectual property.”
As for a legacy, DePodesta wants to foster a culture change for an agency that values secrecy, but in the era of AI recognized it needs all the help it can get from positive community relations.
“I love the city,” DePodesta said. “I love it because of the people and neighborhoods that are quilted together that make this community… The more people who know who we are, the more they trust us and the more they work with us to solve crimes.”
DePodesta started as a police officer in Cincinnati, and after nine years joined the FBI in Chicago in 2002. He plans to be more visible in the months and years ahead.
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