The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau's Code of Excellence

Frank Figliuzzi has a simpler message to impart: The vaunted FBI, for all its recent public controversies, still sets a gold standard for excellence and ethics that should be followed more widely ... Books by retired FBI agents are a genre unto themselves, and Figliuzzi’s is in the spirit of earlier tomes that combine federal-agent tradecraft with a dash of self-improvement advice ... Figliuzzi’s version is more far-reaching, arguing that the world can benefit not from particular FBI skills but from the organization’s principles of accuracy and accountability ... Figliuzzi also applies his judgment to some of the FBI’s more recent, high-profile ethical questions, faulting former director James B. Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation ... a worthwhile exploration of the age-old question of who polices the police, how they do it and to what end, but it never really grapples with the broader implications of the bureau’s recent history.

An in-depth look into the Bureau’s internal code of conduct and how they work tirelessly to maintain rigorous standards of behavior within one of the most influential and important law enforcement agencies in the world ... While he draws heavily on his work experience to dramatize and illustrate his points, The FBI Way doesn’t follow his career in a chronological fashion. Like any other law enforcement professional, he clearly enjoys telling war stories, but the book tends to jump back and forth along his personal timeline. As we move from field work to OPR investigations and back again, we tend to lose track of where we are in his career. However, it’s important to understand that Frank Figliuzzi has not written a book about himself. He’s written a book about the FBI ... Some chapters are better than others ... Despite hitting on most of the hot-button topics, The FBI Way is a somewhat dry read. Figliuzzi is not a particularly good storyteller, and he tends to step on his own punch lines while relating examples of specific cases in which he was involved. As well, his attempts to graft onto the main thesis of the book generalized corporate lessons in best practices based on the FBI’s core values are rather forced, sprinkled in as obvious attempts to widen his readership. Inspired by his five-year stint at General Electric after leaving the Bureau, no doubt. Nonetheless, The FBI Way is an important read for every American who values the rule of law and the role of the FBI in its maintenance.

Figliuzzi rightly notes that an exceptional organization maintains high ethical standards, but the way the author communicates his concepts is not as potent as some would expect from a former special agent ... Though Figliuzzi offers explanations of the principles that guide the FBI, the text is largely a series of anecdotes. Many organizations could stand to implement the FBI’s purported moral uprightness, but the book is not a how-to manual ... The author relates events through James Comey’s departure and the early pandemic. Perhaps the clandestine nature of the FBI prevents Figliuzzi from telling us what we really want to hear, or maybe it’s just too soon. A surprisingly middle-of-the-road book.