Scott Brunner, special agent in charge of the bureau’s San Diego Field Office.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Scott Brunner, a 16-year FBI veteran, has been appointed as special agent in charge of the bureau’s San Diego Field Office.

The FBI announced the appointment Wednesday.

Most recently, Brunner served as deputy assistant director of the Critical Incident Response Group, where he managed FBI surveillance, behavioral analysis, unmanned systems, and aviation.

With a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University, Brunner is working on his master’s degree in unmanned systems from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Brunner joined the FBI in 1995, when he was assigned to the bureau’s Portland Field Office in Oregon. After investigating violent and organized crime, he was transferred to the Oklahoma City Field Office, where is primary focus was public corruption.

In 2003, Brunner managed the joint FBI/Hungarian Organized Task Force at the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. After two years, he went to the San Diego Field Office and supervised a strike force that focused on Mexican drug traffickers.

In 2009, Brunner led the FBI Safe Streets and Gang Unit at the bureau’s headquarters. He received a promotion two years later, becoming assistant agent in charge of criminal and administrative programs at the FBI Field Office in Kentucky. He later headed Louisville’s national security and intelligence programs.

Between 2014 and 2016, Brunner served as the legal attaché in Bogota, Colombia and then was named as the chief of the surveillance and aviation section of CIRG.

Training academy in Quantico, Va., via FBI.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

As the FBI tries to increase its ranks of female agents, 16 women have sued the bureau, claiming they were sexually harassed at the FBI’s training academy in Quantico, Va.

The lawsuit alleges the academy is a “good-old-boy network” that exposes women to a hostile work environment, inappropriate jokes and sexual advances beginning in 2015, The New York Times reports.

The suit also claims some of the women were discriminated against based on their race or disabilities. One African American trainee alleges an instructor called her “spaghetti head” because of her braids.

The lawsuit zeroed in on the mock town known as Hogan’s Alley, where trainees learn about tactical training with fake criminals and terrorists. This phase of training resulted in many women being kicked out of the academy.

“The real purpose of the suit is to change the culture of the F.B.I.,” said David J. Shaffer, the lawyer for the women.

Seven of the 16 women still work for the FBI.

The women are asking for more female training instructors, an examination of the training evaluation process and $300,000 each for emotional stress.

The FBI wouldn’t publicly comment on the lawsuit but told the New York Times in a statement that the bureau was “committed to fostering a work environment where all of our employees are valued and respected.”