The retirement age for the FBI is 57 so in order to achieve the required 20 years of service retirement FBI and special agents have to enter on duty no later than the day before their 37th birthday.
The same retirement age is true for the ATF as ATF agents must retire at age 57 or as soon as 20 years of service have been completed after age 57 and new agents are automatically covered by the Federal Employee Retirement System.
The ATF Academy is hard and notoriously tough both academically and physically.
Some of the subjects covered in the ATF training include training in firearms, physical techniques, driving techniques, handcuffing, interviewing, surveillance, crime scene management, photography, basic firearms training and federal court procedures.
The CITP lasts approximately 12 weeks.
The GPA that you need for ATF is at least a GPA of 2.94 and graduate in the top third of your class or possessing membership in a national honor society.
If you have highly specialized work experience n criminal justice or criminal investigation it may allow you to bypass the educational requirements.
Top tier of the ATF special agent jobs is GL-9.
The ATF requires a degree which is an undergraduate degree, bachelor's degree or at least 3 years of work experience which includes criminal investigative or law enforcement experience.
The requirements to be an ATF agent are you must be between the ages of 21 to 37 years of age, be a U.S. Citizen and have U.S. Citizenship, be able to obtain Top Secret clearance, be eligible to work for the U.S. federal government, have a valid driver's license and have an undergraduate degree or experience or a combination of experience and education.
Becoming an ATF agent takes around 27 weeks.
The ATF agent training is a 27 week long ATF agent training course which includes the 12 week criminal investigator training program which is then followed by the 15 week special agent basic training program.
The hours that ATF agents work is 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday.
Although an ATF agent may work different hours or a day of the week if needed so it can vary according to the ATF agents assignments.
The age limit for ATF agents is you must be at least 21 years of age and not older than 37 years of age at the time of the appointment to become an ATF agent.
ATF agents are covered under law enforcement retirement provisions so you must be appointed before reaching your 37th birthday.
ATF is a good job and is rewarding for people looking to fight crimes at a federal level and the pay is also good.
However the job as an ATF agent is one with risk and challenging and has both physical and mental demands and substantial travel.
The average salary of an ATF agent is $49,000.00 to $83,000.00 annually or $24.00 per hour to $40.00 per hour.
ATF is not part of DEA although FBI works closely with both ATF and DEA agencies on cases where their jurisdictions overlap.
The DEA is a single mission agency that is charged with enforcing drug laws and ATF primarily enforces federal firearms statutes and investigates bombings and arsons.
The crimes that are investigated by the ATF are crimes against federal laws and regulations that are related to the criminal misuse of explosives and firearms as well as crimes such as firearms trafficking, acts of arson and the diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.
The ATF is called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The ATF works to protect the public from crimes that involve explosives, firearms, arson, regulates the lawful commerce in firearms and explosives, the diversion of tobacco products and provides worldwide support to public safety, law enforcement and industry partners.
The weaknesses of the ATF is that the ATF do not consistently collect the information needed to track outcomes and assess effectiveness of external partnerships and interactions.
Also ongoing challenges in working with external law enforcement partners and plans to address the challenges are not documented consistently.
ATF agents are federal agents that are primarily responsible for enforcing and administering criminal and regulatory provisions of the federal laws that pertain to guns and destructive devices such as arson, explosives and bombs etc.
The ATF does have police powers and can make arrests.
ATF agents are special agents like FBI, DEA, IRS have powers of arrest.
An ATF agent can arrest you when they have a legal reason to make an arrest just like regular police can.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is the federal agency primarily responsible for administering and enforcing the criminal and regulatory provisions of the federal laws pertaining to destructive devices (bombs), explosives, and arson.
Specifically, ATF Special Agents have lead investigative authority on any federal crime committed with a firearm or explosive, as well as investigative authority over regulatory referrals and cigarette smuggling.
Under the United States Constitution, only the Legislative branch of the government can create laws.
The ATF is an agency of the Justice Department, which is part of the Executive branch, which cannot create laws.
As sworn law enforcement officers, special agents are authorized to carry weapons and make arrests for federal offenses against the United States.
The term "any other weapon" means any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive, a pistol or revolver having a barrel with a smooth bore designed or redesigned to fire a fixed shotgun shell, weapons with combination shotgun and rifle.
On January 31, 2023, the ATF published a politically driven ruling which noted that attaching a pistol brace to a rifle with a barrel under 16 inches would make that firearm an NFA short-barreled rifle (and thus subject to additional regulation and tax).