VIDEO: BEHIND THE SCENES FBI CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION | Discover how Portland’s FBI office turns everyday skills into public-safety careers …
Inside this high-security complex near Cascade Station, the Portland FBI staff demonstrates how evidence response, crisis management, and other specialty teams support investigations across Oregon.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
For the first time since its Portland secure campus opened near Cascade Station in 2012 – a project East Portland News first covered at its 2010 groundbreaking – the Portland Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) invited local media inside its perimeter fencing for a hands‑on look at its specialty teams and the career options it has for local residents.
The May 8 event at the FBI’s Parkrose‑area complex was designed to spotlight just how many different jobs – and unexpected career paths – there are inside the Bureau.
FBI recruiter Isabella Crepeaux, who works out of the Portland office, emphasized that the Bureau’s image in popular culture only hints at the range of careers actually available. From her perspective, the Bureau’s specialty teams are one of the best ways to show that breadth to potential applicants.
Behind the buildings, but inside the Portland FBI complex, recruiter Isabella Crepeaux explains how collateral duties and specialty teams open unexpected career paths for local residents in the Bureau.
Beyond the TV‑show image of the FBI
Crepeaux said that many prospective applicants never consider themselves working for the FBI because their only exposure to the agency comes from movies or television dramas.
“A lot of people don’t even consider the FBI as a career option for them. It’s something that they see in TV and movies, but it’s something that seems ‘very far out there’, and not super accessible to them to consider as a career,” Crepeaux told East Portland News. “And we want to highlight that it is an option. It is an option for people, whatever their background is.”
Watch as FBI recruiter Isabella Crepeaux demonstrates crime scene investigation techniques on their high-security campus:
To make that more real for visitors, the Portland office showcased some of the Bureau’s collateral duties – extra assignments that agents and professional staff can volunteer for, in addition to their primary jobs. Crepeaux pointed to teams such as the Evidence Response Team, the Crisis Management Team, and the Crisis Negotiation Team as examples.
These assignments, she explained, gave personnel a chance to build skills and experiences well beyond their original job descriptions.
“These collateral duties…are extra teams you can join; and anyone in any job role can join them, and so it really helps you grow professionally and have different experiences besides just your normal job role,” Crepeaux said.
Evidence markers on the ground, here in the demonstration area, highlight different kinds of “evidence” that the FBI’s local Evidence Response Team examines and tests.
Evidence response: Science at crime scenes
One focal point of the event was their Evidence Response Team, which deploys to crime scenes across Oregon.
Crepeaux demonstrated how the Evidence Response Team documents crime scenes – from collecting fingerprints to running presumptive blood tests. “We also do ‘alternate light source examination’,” Crepeaux observed, “and then those items are sent to our lab, where more processing is done.”
The Portland FBI’s Evidence Response Team includes about 20 members – a mix of special agents, administrative staff, and analysts. “Our evidence response team is on call, so anytime there is a callout and we are asked to respond, potentially anywhere in the State of Oregon, the team goes there to collect evidence.”
Isabella Crepeaux “lifts” a fingerprint from a soda can, demonstrating how the FBI’s Evidence Response Team collects latent prints at a crime scene.
A recruiter who grew into specialty work
Crepeaux’s own career showed how collateral assignments can reshape a person’s path inside the Bureau. She came to the FBI in an entry‑level role, not realizing how much room there was to grow beyond her job title. “I did take an entry-level position. I didn’t know then that it’s an option to get involved in these collateral duties,” Crepeaux said.
Nut when she found out, her early technical assignments on evidence and crisis teams gave her a front‑row view of how investigations unfold – experience she now draws on as Portland’s FBI recruiter, when she talks with applicants about how their skills might fit, and how their careers could evolve.
The head of the FBI’s Portland Field Office explains that while the Bureau operates internationally, its Portland staff lives in – and understands – the local community, reinforcing that “there is a career in the FBI for you” as Special Agent Doug Olson puts it.
‘There is a career in the FBI for you’
Special Agent Doug Olson, who oversees the FBI’s Portland Field Office, stresses that while the Bureau operates internationally, the Portland staff lives in – and understands – this community.
“We’re an international organization, but everybody in this office is local here in Portland,” said Olson. “The closer we are to this community, then the better we can serve it.”
He pointed out that the Bureau relies on far more than traditional agents, with jobs that include:
- Electronic technicians
- Evidence technicians and laboratory scientists
- Intelligence and financial analysts
- Media, communications, and congressional affairs staff
- Other professional staff supporting investigations
FBI Public Affairs Specialist Prentice Danner explains that the FBI offers “a plethora of different jobs” that all work together to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people.
Public Affairs Specialist Prentice Danner reinforced that most people just think of “agents” when they think of the FBI, even though “the FBI has a plethora of different jobs you can get involved in… and we have special agents, too, and all those folks work together to accomplish a singular mission, which is to uphold the Constitution and to protect the American people.”
Danner added that education, a clean record, and the ability to pass the Bureau’s background standards do remain essential.
The demonstration continues as Isabella Crepeaux shows the result of an “occult blood test”.
How to connect with Portland FBI recruiting
Crepeaux emphasized that interested applicants do not have to wait for a recruiting event to explore FBI careers. Openings are listed online; and the Portland office hosts both in‑person and virtual recruitment opportunities.
To reach the Portland FBI recruiting department, prospective applicants can email portlandapplicants@fbi.gov, or call the main Portland Field Office at (503) 224‑4181 – or use their official online intake form: CLICK HERE.
© 2026 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
