Editor Note: We believe some of the most important stories in America are the ones that rarely make the headlines.
We are proud to announce the launch of Untold Stories, a new video series produced in partnership with the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) and sponsored by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Foundation. Over the coming months, this two-dozen-episode series will take viewers inside federal law enforcement agencies across the nation, highlighting the men and women who serve, the missions they carry out, and the partnerships that help keep our communities and country safe.
Through exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes access, and firsthand accounts, Untold Stories will showcase success stories, innovative initiatives, and unique perspectives on national security and public safety.
Join us for the latest episode here, as Untold Stories takes you inside the agencies, missions, and people working every day to protect our nation. This episode gives you a preview of what is to come in this series.
A phone rings in a call center overseas. On the other end, an American senior citizen is about to lose their life savings. By the time the FBI’s New York Field Office finished tearing the operation apart, investigators had traced more than $400 million stolen from elderly victims across the country.
Then comes the warning from the man now running the Bureau.
“If you seek to hide in any corner of this country or any corner of this planet, we will put on the world’s largest manhunt and we will find you,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “And we will decide your end state, not you.”
In this edition of FLEOA’s Untold Stories, Patel sits down with Law Enforcement Today owner Kyle Reyes for an unfiltered look at the director, the mission, and the cops he credits for all of it.
Patel’s story starts in New York. His parents fled a genocidal dictatorship and lawfully immigrated to the United States, where police kept their neighborhood safe enough for their son to get an education. “I’m here singularly because of cops,” Patel said. Now their kid runs the FBI. “Can’t happen anywhere else in the world.”
Reyes presses him: why would someone with a massive audience and easy money take a job that ages people before their time? Patel, now in his 18th year of service, doesn’t blink. “The money, whatever. Who cares? Who else gets to do this?” He calls wearing the badge the best job in the world, and he has the proof. “Every good TV show or series out there is about us,” he said. “And they wouldn’t be trying to copy us if they didn’t want to be us.”
The conversation turns to trust. Under the previous administration, plenty of state and local officers said flat out that they’d stopped trusting the FBI. Patel’s answer was to clear out leadership at headquarters and push power back into the field, sending his special agents in charge out to rebuild those relationships face to face. His orders: prove the Bureau will stand behind its partners and never ask them to risk their lives without showing up to back them. Those partners now tell him it’s a change they’ve waited 10 to 15 years to see.
The numbers back him up. Patel points to 45,000 violent offenders arrested last year, twice as many as 2024, along with 2,450 criminal gangs disrupted, 6,900 child victims located, and 2,900 child predators and human traffickers arrested. Add a 20% drop in the national homicide rate and eight of the world’s top 10 most wanted fugitives in custody.
Still, Patel insists the credit isn’t his. “It ain’t about me. It never will be,” he said. What he hopes lasts is “the law enforcement community we built.”
FLEOA National President Mat Silverman, whose organization represents roughly 140,000 federal agents worldwide, closes out the episode with thanks to FLEO Foundation National President Jon Adler for supporting officers in need.
As for the critics, Patel has a simple message: “Keep the target on me.” The mission, he says, has never been better.
Watch the full episode to see the director, unfiltered, and the agents and cops he says are getting it done.
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