ATF Stories
In July 2019, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) accomplished something not many other federal agencies have: creating a Spanish language micro-version of its website, ATF.gov.
“This has been in the making for a long time, and I’m so proud of this team’s efforts,” said Brian Nickey, chief of ATF’s Digital Media Division (DMD).
Why did ATF need to add a second language to the site?
Issued in 2000, Executive Order 13166 requires organizations that receive federal funding to make their services accessible to persons with limited English proficiency. ATF chose... Read more about ATF en Español: Web Team Launches Public Spanish Site
On December 2nd, ATF national headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will officially carry the name of Special Agent Ariel Rios. Rios was killed in the line of duty the same day a little more than three decades ago.
On Dec. 2, 1982, Rios and his partner Special Agent Alex D’Atri were negotiating a large cocaine deal, known as an undercover buy and bust operation, from drug traffickers at the Hurricane Motel in Little Havana on West Flagler Street in Central Miami.
Special Agent Rios was a member of the Vice President’s Task Force on South Florida Crime during the early-1980s at a... Read more about ATF headquarters named after fallen agent
On July 24, 2015, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) National Laboratory Center held its very first graduation for the Caribbean firearms examiners class. This 12-week course in forensics was given to selected members of countries in the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) program to provide instruction and training in the identification of weapons and ammunition, proper documentation to facilitate firearms and explosives traces, current trends in firearms, and intelligence gathering techniques.
ATF joined the CBSI program in 2012 under an Inter-Agency... Read more about The First of Its Kind: A New Class of Crime Fighters for the Caribbean
A law prohibiting women in federal law enforcement from carrying firearms was in effect until 1971. It wasn't until then that female federal agents of the new era were allowed to join the ranks.
On July 1, 1972, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) became an independent agency, separate from the Internal Revenue Service and began reporting to the U.S. Department of Treasury. Only a few weeks earlier, ATF experienced another change. In June 1972, Jo Ann Kocher was sworn in as the first female ATF special agent.
Kocher, an only child, was raised in Queens, New York... Read more about ATF Pioneer: Jo Ann Kocher - First Female ATF Agent