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.

[1] The CBI is the oldest continuously operating statewide criminal investigative agency in the CA DOJ and the state of California.

The CBI 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 Special Operations Unit (SOU) targeting murder suspects and violent criminal groups with special equipment/resources, a Human Trafficking Team, a Sexual Predator and Assault Team (SPAT), an Electronic Crimes Unit (ECU), a Tax Recovery and Crime Enforcement (TRACE) Task Force, a Recycling Fraud Team (RFT), an intelligence operations clearing house/de-confliction center for law enforcement agencies (LA CLEAR), and the state anti-terrorism program.

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.

[5] Beginning in 2007, 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.