Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The new special agent in charge of the FBI's Salt Lake City field office is no stranger to Utah.
Paul Haertel worked as the assistant special agent in charge from 2015 to 2017, overseeing the bureau's criminal program in Idaho, Montana and Utah. He most recently was the chief of the Counterintelligence Division’s Counterespionage Section at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Haertel, 52, started his new job in Salt Lake City last month. He said he doesn't expect to do things much differently than his now-retired predecessor, though he intends to focus more on crime in Indian Country.
Part of the FBI's mandate is to look at crime on the 19 reservations in the three states covered by the Salt Lake office, he said.
"A lot of that work right now is reactionary, so we react to a complaint. I'd like to develop a way to make it a little more proactive, what is the underlying cause of the crime situation on the reservation," he said.
As for overall crime in Utah, Haertel said it's about the same as other cities where he worked, including Lexington, Kentucky, and Greenville, South Carolina.
"I would say Utah is no different than any other state," he said, though he added that complex financial scams seems to be more prevalent in the state.
"We run the gamut in Salt Lake and in the division," Haertel said. "If you can think of crime that fits what you would expect an FBI agent to work, it's going on in the state of Utah."
Haertel said he also wants to work closer with communities to identify and address crime.
"The biggest thing we can use is information because if there's a problem in the community and no one tells us about the problem, there's nothing we can do about it. We don't have enough agents to go out and search for crime problems," he said.
A former Navy SEAL, Haertel joined the FBI in 1995. He also worked as the legal attaché in Prague, Czech Republic, where he oversaw international public corruption, violent crime and money laundering cases.
Haertel grew up in Alaska. He attended Middlebury College in Vermont, earning a bachelor's degree in English literature.
