Marvin Richardson
Acting Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
Marvin Richardson has an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of North Texas. He holds a master’s degree in human relations and business from Amberton University. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy.
Richardson has worked in law enforcement more than 32 years, including 5 years as a police officer at the University of North Texas Police Department in Denton, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant before leaving the department to join the ATF. He began his career with ATF as a Special Agent in the Dallas Field Division.
His career with ATF spans more than 30 years, and includes services as the Special Agent in Charge of the Denver Field Division, Chair of the ATF Professional Review Board, Chief of the National Center for Explosives Training and Research, and as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division.
He spent five years as the Assistant Director, Enforcement Program and Services after serving two years in that department as the Deputy Assistant Director.
He was appointed as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in June 2021. He is currently also functioning as the ATF Acting Director under the Vacancies Act.
Richardson is married and has six children.
In the News…
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has helped develop a computer imaging system known as the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) that allows police to link bullet casings to a firearm and then to a suspect.
Each casing tells a story that can eventually allow police to tie a crime to a gun and to a suspect. Sometimes a gun is recovered days, weeks, or even years later by a search warrant or at another crime scene. At that point, many police departments will fire the gun into a water-logged cylinder for the sole purpose of producing a casing that has its own unique image, a “firearm fingerprint.”
A special agent from the Los Angeles Field Office put it this way. “You have aggravated assaults, you may have a carjacking, you may have an armed robbery where a firearm is used. Every firearm will leave a fingerprint on the back of the cartridge casing. When that cartridge is ejected, it will leave a marking on the case. When it is entered into our NIBIN system, we can compare it against other cartridge casings from other crime scenes. If they match, that generates the lead.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Acting Director Richardson today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Marvin Richardson, Acting Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
99 New York Ave NW
Washington, DC 20226
