During World War I, General
John J. Pershing ordered the creation of a separate organization within the
Military Police Corps to prevent and detect crime among the
American Expeditionary Force in France. The newly created Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was headed by a division chief who served as the advisor to the Provost Marshal General on all matters relating to criminal investigations. However, operational control of CID still remained with individual provost marshals, and there was no central control of investigative efforts within the organization, resulting in limitations. At the end of the war, the United States Army was reduced in size during the transition to peacetime and the size of CID shrank dramatically. With the United States' entry into
World War II in December 1941, the armed forces rapidly swelled in size and the Army once again became a force of millions, and the need for a self-policing law enforcement system rematerialized. However, by early 1942, investigations of crimes committed by military personnel were still considered to be a "command function" to be conducted by local military police personnel. The Office of The Provost Marshal General felt that the agents in the Investigations Department were not properly trained for criminal investigations, the only investigations taking place at the time being personnel security background investigations for individuals being considered for employment in defense industries. As the Army had expanded, the crime rate had risen, and local commanders did not have the personnel or resources to conduct adequate investigations. By December 1943, the Provost Marshal General was charged with providing staff supervision over all criminal investigations, and a month later in January 1944, the Criminal Investigation Division was reestablished under the Provost Marshal General's Office. The organization exercised supervision over criminal investigation activities, coordinated investigations between commands, dictated plans and policies, and set standards for criminal investigators. After the war, the CID was once again decentralized, with control of criminal investigations transferred to area commands in the 1950s and further down to the installation level in the 1960s. A
Department of Defense study in 1964 entitled
Project Security Shield made clear that complete recentralization of the Army's criminal investigative effort was needed in order to produce a more efficient and responsive worldwide capability. Beginning in 1965, criminal investigative elements were reorganized into CID groups corresponding to geographical areas in the United States. In 1966, the concept was introduced to units in Europe and the Far East. However, this arrangement did not fully resolve all the coordination problems, and in 1969, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Agency was established to supervise all CID operations worldwide. As the agency did not have command authority, in March 1971,
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird directed the
Secretary of the Army to form a CID command with command and control authority over all Army-wide CID assets. On 17 September 1971, the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command was established as a
major Army command, vested with command and control of all CID activities and resources worldwide. The Provost Marshal is using the FHIRC report as a guide for reforming the CID. On 17 September 2021, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the agency, Special Agent Gregory D. Ford, formerly the Deputy Director of Operations for the
Naval Criminal Investigative Service, assumed responsibility as the first civilian director. Furthermore, it was also announced that the Criminal Investigation Command was being renamed the Criminal Investigation Division, the name which was first associated with the organization in 1918.
Fort Hood Report An independent review of Fort Hood in 2020 The panel's report stands as a searing indictment of the Army's Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program, both specifically at Fort Hood and broadly across the Army. Following the fallout of the Fort Hood Report, a historical reorganization was announced in 2021, which will result in a civilian director, separation from the Military Police chain of command, credentialed military officers assigned to CID with specialized investigative training and less protective details to allow agents more time to hone their skills. The report found that the Army investigators tasked with reviewing complex crimes at Fort Hood were vastly inexperienced, overwhelmed and understaffed, resulting in failures to protect service members and their families. ==Selection and training==