The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency’s (DCSA) June 2026 Voice of Industry (VOI) monthly newsletter announced:
- By July 31, 2026 DCSA Industrial Security Representatives (ISRs), Industrial Security Systems Professionals (ISSPs), and Counterintelligence Special Agents (CISAs) will no longer have a badge or credentials. They will rely solely on their Common Access Cards (CACs) as their official identification.
- By December 30, 2026 the DCSA background investigation workforce will all be issued new investigative credentials, but without badges.
Contract background investigators doing work on behalf of Intelligence Community agencies have always relied on credentials in bifold cases without badges. Some contract investigators who carry DCSA badge and credentials are reluctant to show their silver badges because they look cheap – like something you might find in a store among children’s toys.
With the current emphasis at DCSA on doing most reference (source) interviews by telephone and most Subject Interviews by video teleconference (VTC), there really isn’t much need for an investigator to show their badge and credentials anymore. An article in the February 2026 VOI stated DCSA’s preference for using the telephone and VTC, and touted the benefits of telephone interviews as faster timeliness, increased flexibility, and reduced waste. Nothing was said about the possible effect on investigative quality. There are rumors of the eventual creation of investigative call centers. No doubt in the current environment, DCSA personnel will be able to function adequately without the former indicia of their positions.
DCSA’s stated intent is “To streamline identification practices, align with broader security enterprise standards, and minimize access requirements.” DCSA did not explain how eliminating investigator badges and eliminating both badge and credentials for other DCSA representatives will do these things. It won’t minimize access requirements, since they also stated that it will be necessary for DCSA to process “Visit Access Requests (VAR) in the DISS [Defense Information Systems for Security] to each cleared possessing facility” for their non-credentialed personnel. It’s questionable that their identification practices actually needed to be streamlined. It’s also unclear how removing badges and credentials from DCSA personnel equates to “modernizing its identification model.”
For 54 years government and industry personnel, as well as the general public, have accepted and relied upon the badge and credentials of personnel working for DCSA (and its predecessors) as proof of their authority to conduct personnel and industrial security functions. For decades before the 1972 establishment of the Defense Investigative Service, Army, Navy, Air Force and OPM investigators identified themselves using badge and credentials while conducting security clearance investigations.
There may be good reason to support, oppose, or be indifferent to DCSA investigative and security personnel using badge and credentials to identify themselves during their frequent official interactions with the public. Somehow this all seems like change, strictly for the sake of change.
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