Honorees are nominated by each of the FBI’s 56 field offices, as well as the Bureau’s Office of Public Affairs and the Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

In his remarks, Director Comey said this year’s recipients embodied the words attributed to the 16th century minister John Wesley, who said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

The Director related a story about speaking to young audiences and warning them against losing sight of what really matters in life. He would ask them to close their eyes, imagine they were old, and then ask themselves: Who do I want to have been? “I know some of you want to have been people who made a difference for those who needed you,” he would tell the kids, “to have been people who chose lives of moral content, who stood there for the bullied and the picked on and the frightened.”

“Why am I telling you this?” Comey asked on Friday. “This auditorium is filled with people who have already answered the question in the most remarkable way. You will have been those people. We’re here today to thank you for being that. Because of you, the FBI is better. Because of you, the United States of America is better.”

Photos and information on each of the DCLA recipients can be found below.