U.S. officials pick Greenbelt, Md., for new FBI national headquarters

The FBI basketball team faced off Friday afternoon against a group of high-schoolers from across D.C. on an indoor basketball court at the agency’s downtown headquarters. The FBI employees scrambled for loose balls against their faster opponents, groaned at what they viewed as referees’ bad foul calls, and used their bodies to block the shots of the still-lanky teenagers half their size.

The agents took an early lead in the competitive 30-minute game.

“The longer the game goes on, the more youth is likely to triumph,” Wray quietly commented to the FBI workers standing with him on the sidelines.

The basketball game was a few years in the making and part of top FBI officials’ efforts to build relationships between the powerful law enforcement agency and young people in the D.C. region.

FBI agents and leaders typically don’t wear uniforms and aren’t visible in communities like local police departments are. The idea was to find ways to show students FBI facilities, explain to them the scope of the agency’s work — and introduce them to different FBI career paths, informing them of the education decisions they would need to make for various jobs.

The dozen-plus teenage boys in Friday’s game were members of the basketball team at Roosevelt High School, a public campus in Northwest Washington where the majority of students are Black and Hispanic and come from low-income families.

The event was organized with the city’s Department of Park and Recreation. The Roosevelt players also participate in that agency’s Roving Leaders program, which connects youths with mentors and outreach workers to help them develop skills to nonviolently defuse conflicts.

D.C. Public Schools was closed for a staff work day Friday, and the students arrived to the FBI headquarters in the early afternoon. They first heard speeches from FBI employees, then took a tour through an interactive museum in the building, learning about hidden cameras, the FBI’s 10 most wanted list, and how a case moves from its early investigative stages to a trial. FBI employees took the tour with them, chatting with the students and answering questions along the way.

The students said in interviews that they hadn’t thought much before Friday about what the FBI actually does on a day-to-day basis. Some said they had a negative perception of the agency’s work. They were aware the agency had a particularly fraught past with Black communities, with the FBI historically devoting resources to covertly surveil Black activists, including Martin Luther King Jr.

FBI officials acknowledged that history and said that part of building a stronger agency relies on recruiting agents from diverse backgrounds who can bring different ideas and experiences to investigations.

“I’m surprised by how many African American people work at the FBI,” said 17-year-old Brendan Grant. “I didn’t expect so many people who look like me and my teammates.”

Fifteen-year-old James Johnson, who spent part of the day carefully reading details of the FBI’s most famous cases, said he was considering applying for the FBI’s summer program for high-schoolers after learning about the different careers the agency offered.

“I just knew the FBI seemed harsh and violent,” Johnson said. “I definitely have new ideas now. They said there’s more than 2,000 different job roles.”

D.C. and FBI officials at Friday’s event stressed to the teenagers that community relationships were critical to the success of the FBI’s solving crimes. They said, whatever career path the students choose, building relationship with leaders and neighbors in their communities would be key to making positive decisions.

Robert J. Contee III — the FBI’s assistant director of the Office of Partner Engagement who was the D.C. police chief until 2023 — stopped by in the afternoon to speak with the students. As he entered the room, he spotted the students’ basketball coach, Rob Nickens, and tapped his shoulder and greeted him as Coach Rob. While growing up, the two men played on the same basketball team at the now-closed Spingarn High School in Northeast Washington. They didn’t know they would run into each other Friday.

“Some people don’t think too highly of the FBI,” Contee said. “These men and women come here every day and work hard just for you guys.”

Nickens jumped in and said his friendship with Contee underscores the importance of maintaining positive relationships throughout life — even if they are with people in law enforcement. Nickens said that he once called Contee directly when he was police chief to talk about two fighting teenagers whose dispute he feared could turn deadly. Contee provided resources for the involved families and helped them resolve the conflict before anyone was hurt.

He said that relationship saved the lives of those children.

After the tour and speeches, it was time for the basketball game.

David Sundberg, who heads the FBI’s Washington Field Office, showed up and watched the entire game. Wray’s top deputies, including his deputy director and chief of staff, also took a break from work to catch the action.

They said they hope to turn the experience into a regular event, with children from schools across the D.C. region traveling to FBI headquarters to play volleyball and basketball games against agents.

“The FBI looks more opaque in the communities we are in than local police departments,” Sundberg said. “This puts a human face to it.”

The FBI employees were far more skilled and competitive than the teens had expected. They didn’t seem to know that the FBI hosts its own basketball league among staff.

But in the end, Wray’s prediction was right: The high-schoolers triumphed and beat the agents 35 to 31.

“It was a competitive game,” said 15-year-old Sean Hall. “They were better than I thought.”

“I was shocked. I thought they were going to be a little slower,” Johnson said. “But they were balling.”

Wray briefly addressed the students. He said he hopes to seem them again — either at another basketball game, or through one of the agency’s high school and college programs.

“Or maybe at Quantico,” he said, referring to the FBI’s training headquarters in Virginia. “receiving your FBI credentials.”