Do Individuals Have FBI Agents Watching Their Every Move?

When it comes to the question of whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assigns individual agents to monitor each person's every move, the answer is a resounding 'No.' The idea of a team of agents assigned to watch someone constantly is more akin to propaganda from spy movies or conspiracy theories.

mathematical perspective:

Let's break down the numbers involved:

Population and Agent Numbers

According to the U.S. Census, there are approximately 331 million residents in the United States. For the sake of simplicity, we'll use the term 'Americans' to denote all the residents, although not everyone is a U.S. citizen. The FBI, the principal investigative organization of the United States government, employs around 10,000 agents (though this number can fluctuate).

Team Assignments and Shifts

Imagine if such a system were in place. These agents would have to work in shifts to monitor all Americans. Assuming an eight-hour shift, that means only 3,333 agents would be active at any given time.

Actioning this, each agent would theoretically be responsible for monitoring the actions of about 99,310 Americans. Assuming most Americans are law-abiding and most crimes are not federal, many agents would indeed be quite bored, suggesting the need for more immediate methods of divesting time.

Allocation of Time and Resources

According to one estimate, there are approximately 5,199 federal crimes, and not all of them fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI. However, some of these crimes are more common than others. For instance, many federal crimes involve financial fraud, which often demands immediate attention.

Given that, if 100 of an agent's time is devoted to monitoring the law-abiding population, the question arises: how are they supposed to allocate the remaining time to investigate the federal crimes that actually occur?

Conclusion: FBI Monitoring Reality

The FBI does not assign agents to monitor individuals' every move. The agency's role is to investigate and prevent federal crimes, not to conduct constant surveillance on all Americans. The only police force that watches each American's every move is the one we have right here, in the form of local law enforcement officers and the everyday surveillance provided by public and private security.

How they manage their time and resources efficiently is a subject of constant vigilance and paperwork, but in no way resembles a 24/7 assignment to every American citizen.