Johnathan (Jack) E. Ingersoll (October 31, 1929 – January 12, 2023) was an American police officer and federal law enforcement agent.

[1] Ingersoll carried on the work of his FBN predecessors Harry J. Anslinger and Henry Giordano in investigating the French Connection, and was highly successful.

[7] During Ingersoll's tenure as Director of the BNDD the French connection was nearly completely eradicated, with the final convictions occurring shortly before the transition to the DEA.

[9][10] Ingersoll's approach to narcotics enforcement was one of global intelligence gathering from all sources on organized criminal syndicates, to the point of confusion by members of Congress and the White House, who wanted numbers, arrests, and convictions.

[1] Ingersoll could not properly communicate to Congress why he believed it was a waste of time and money to target low-level offenders, and that narcotics investigations should be delicate and surgical operations.

[1] Meanwhile, Myles Ambrose as the Commissioner for Customs ran operations that repeatedly patted down members of the public, performed mass arrests, and targeted street-level dealers.

[1] In January 1972, responding to the fears of Congress, Nixon created the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) and placed Ambrose at its head.

[9] Ingersoll also cited the fact that the Nixon administration's uncoordinated and haphazard policy toward narcotics was creating interagency rivalries that were disadvantageous to investigative work.

[9] The DEA was created two days after Ingersoll resigned, and was placed under the acting Administration of John R. Bartels Jr. By 1975, Bartels would ultimately suffer the same fate as Ingersoll: repeated requests for him to resign due to poor performance numbers, based in the Congressional desire for performance, and his lack of ability to explain to them the difference between proper and improper narcotics investigations.

[3] In 2009, Ingersoll and his wife moved to the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, where he served on the board of directors and the Finance Committee.