FBI’s Sacramento office got a new leader this year. He’s tackled deadly terror attacks and more
The FBI’s Sacramento office has helped arrest some of the capital region’s most high-profile criminals: the Unabomber, serial bank robbers and a prominent Mafia family figure. A new leader — who will be responsible for the storied office’s next generation of fighting injustices — has recently assumed the top post.
Siddhartha “Sid” Patel, a special agent in charge, oversees about 400 employees in the Roseville-based field office, who work across 38 California counties. When he assumed the position in April, he also became the first Indian American to lead the office, which is responsible for 87,000 square miles and is the FBI’s largest jurisdiction in the Golden State.
Throughout his 22-year career, Patel has served on the front lines investigating mass-casualty incidents and white-collar crime. He helped foil terrorist plots overseas but also responded in the U.S. to the worst terrorism attack post-9/11 at that time — the 2015 San Bernardino shooting — and the deadliest mass shooting carried out by a lone gunman.
A calling to serve his country and to sow a legacy — also coupled with the desire to fight for victims — guides Patel.
“When I’m on my deathbed one day … I want to look back and say, ‘I made this a better country. I made this better for my kids,’” Patel said during an interview this week. “My life meant something.”
‘Whole symbol of hope’
Fighting for victims has always permeated through Patel’s life.
Growing up outside of Houston, Patel recalled a fond childhood but still experienced instances of discrimination and unfairness. It manifested in his father being told to go back to where he came from. His locker and car had been scrawled with a racial slur, he said.
But Patel said he stood up for victims, who often feared law enforcement.
“It was just my mindset,” he said. “I always believed in that whole symbol of hope, and being greater than yourself … trying to give back to the community.”
He arrived at Carnegie Mellon for college, playing on the football team, and eventually worked in the private sector after graduation. But working in technology and business didn’t strike his passion, Patel said.
“It just wasn’t me,” Patel said.
All through his life, Patel straddled two worlds as an Indian American and felt like he didn’t belong in either country. But he set aside goals and aspirations assigned to him by his parents and decided to give back to America by serving in law enforcement. There wasn’t a day he took for granted freedoms bestowed by democracy, he said.
The FBI resumed hiring again post-9/11 and Patel joined two years later, he said. He began his career in Oakland at the FBI’s San Francisco office and eventually worked in Southern California.
In Orange County, Patel investigated residents siphoning money to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, commonly referred to as ISIS. He led the investigation into the San Bernardino attack. Fourteen people died and 24 people were injured in what was the worst terror attack on U.S. soil post-9/11 until the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
Patel also worked on the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, which killed 60 people and wounded more than 500 others — the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history to date.
But Patel remembered the difficulties as a fresh FBI agent and encountering people’s misconceptions about him because he didn’t “look the part,” he said. It’s why he serves — to take away residents’ trepidation or uncertainties about law enforcement.
“It doesn’t matter what color, religion (or) race,” he said. “It doesn’t matter … We’re unified. We are American. That’s it.”
Election security
The FBI is gearing up in 2024 — a presidential election year — to strengthen election security from domestic and foreign threats, Patel said.
There’s been an increase in bomb warnings, white powder sent to government offices and threats issued to election workers. Some have tried to dissuade minorities from voting. Cyberthreats abound from countries such as North Korea, Russia, China and Iran about trying to “manipulate” the election cycle, Patel said.
A Yuba County elections worker was exposed in January to fentanyl powder contained in an envelope sent from a “verified sender,” according to The Sacramento Bee’s previous reporting.
Around Election Day last year, federal authorities said they intercepted a “suspicious mailing” sent to the Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections office. The envelopes were sent to elections facilities in Sacramento and Los Angeles, but there was no confirmation of “toxic substances” inside.
Elections are safe, Patel vowed. The FBI does follow through on every tip it receives, he said.
“If you see something, say something,” Patel said. “We will do something. We will follow through.”
