California Bureau of Investigation

California Bureau of Investigation
CBI Seal
CBI Logo
CA DOJ Special Agent Badge
Abbreviation	"CBI" or "BI"
Motto	Liberty and Justice Under Law
Agency overview
Formed	January 1, 1905 (1905-01-01)
Preceding agencies	California Rangers California Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence
Annual budget	$233 million (Division of Law Enforcement)
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction	California, U.S.
Operational structure
Headquarters	Sacramento, California
Division Chief responsible	Kevin Gardner, Chief, Division of Law Enforcement
Agency executive	Kent Shaw, Director, Bureau of Investigation
Parent agency	California Department of Justice Division of Law Enforcement
Website
oag.ca.gov/bi

The California Bureau of Investigation ("CBI" or "BI") is California's statewide criminal investigative bureau under the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ), in the Division of Law Enforcement (DLE), administered by the Office of the State Attorney General that provides expert investigative services to assist local, state, tribal, and federal agencies in major criminal investigations ranging across the state.

History

The California Office of the Attorney General (AG) was created in 1850; however, permanent law enforcement and criminal investigative elements of the CA DOJ were not established until the early 20th century. Despite this, CBI can trace part of its roots back to that of the original California Rangers; the first statewide criminal investigative and law enforcement agency created on May 17, 1853. Although the California Rangers were quickly disbanded (following their success in bringing the violent Five Joaquins gang to justice), their special law enforcement capabilities and statewide investigative mission now reside primarily with CA DOJ Special Agents, such as those assigned to CBI. Listed below are some key dates for the bureau:

• In 1905, the California Bureau of Criminal Identification (CBCI) was created under CA DOJ for classification and identification of criminals via various means such as fingerprints. However, the original CBCI was disbanded in 1909.

• On January 1, 1918 (following approved legislation in 1917), the California Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (CBCII), was created following the recognition by state officials that unification of state law enforcement efforts was needed. This group of investigators possessed the criminal identification capabilities of the earlier CBCI, along new investigative authorities. CBCII, along with the now defunct California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement (BNE) created in 1927, provided the California Attorney General with the initial criminal investigative capabilities it still has today via CBI.

• In 2009, although still essentially the same organization, the official name of CBI was changed to the Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence (BII) after it merged with the Bureau of Intelligence following a massive reorganization and consolidation of the CA DOJ's Division of Law Enforcement.

• In 2012, the BII then merged with parts of the BNE (and the BNE itself was eliminated) to create the new Bureau of Investigation on February 17, 2012. The BI commonly works on a variety of cases, including murder, narcotics trafficking, fraud, and even certain civil matters.

Today the CBI can be assigned at the discretion of the State Attorney General, performs investigations on public land for incidents that occur outside of local jurisdictions, or can be requested by local authority for various reasons (e.g. areas that are too small to have local detectives or cross-jurisdiction coordination of major crimes). The BI also operates several programs including a Special Investigations Team (SIT) handling high-profile investigations and special investigative requests from the Attorney General's Office, a state task force program, a Special Operations Unit (SOU) targeting murder suspects and violent criminal groups with special equipment/resources, an Electronic Crimes Unit (ECU), LA CLEAR, and the state anti-terrorism program. The BI also participates in federal task forces such as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

In fiction

• A fictional version of CBI name, was featured in the television series The Mentalist. It featured several units, with the one featuring the main characters focusing mostly on the investigation of homicides, and occasionally kidnappings or missing persons.

• The Region 1 DVD release of the fourth season of The Mentalist includes the special CBI: Behind the Badge, featuring interaction with actual law enforcement officers in California, specifically focusing on a homicide task force with several agents and officers of different agencies (including those from CBI), who tutored those who worked on the program in providing a realistic portrayal.

• A CBI Special Agent was also featured in a third season episode of the crime television series Numb3rs, where the CBI agent worked together with the FBI to catch a murderous cult leader.

• Beginning in 2008 (with the most recent written in 2016), New York Times best selling author Jeffery Deaver wrote a series of crime drama novels starring the fictional Special Agent Kathryn Dance of the CA DOJ/CBI.

External links

• Bureau of Investigation (BI) – description on the California Office of the Attorney General's website