The SBI provides investigative assistance to local law enforcement agencies when requested by police, sheriffs, district attorneys, or judges.
The agency has original jurisdiction in areas such as drug and arson investigations, election law violations, weapons of mass destruction, gambling, alcohol violations, child sexual abuse in daycare centers, computer crimes against children, crimes involving state property, and overseeing boxing regulations.
SBI and Alcohol Law Enforcement agents conduct investigations to suppress organized crime and vice activities.
The SBI's Tactical Services Unit[4] responds to hostage situations, barricaded suspects, high risk search warrants and arrests, explosive devices and high-level security events.
A part of Tactical Services, the Criminal Apprehension Program locates hard-to-find fugitives, homicide and drug trafficking suspects and missing or endangered persons at the request of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Tactical Services also has a Crisis Negotiation Team to peacefully resolve situations such as barricaded subjects or hostage takers.
The Special Response Team responds to hostage rescues, barricaded felons, dignitary protection, meth labs and high risk arrests.
The SBI's Professional Standards Division[6] conducts the most sensitive investigations involving public corruption and government misconduct.
[10] The General Assembly 1937 passed legislation that established the State Bureau of Identification and Investigation (SBII) which was directly overseen by the governor.
To finance the bureau, every criminal case finally disposed of in the courts had a $1 additional cost assessed and paid to the State Treasurer of North Carolina.
In the following decades, the General Assembly passed and enacted several laws giving new roles to the Bureau, which included authorizing private detectives within the state, and investigating arson and damage to, theft of, or misuse of state-owned property.
Six were approved, including one that required the legislature to reduce the number of administrative departments within the state government, which totaled more than 300 at the time.
In August 2014, the North Carolina legislature removed the SBI from the Department of Justice, and Governor Pat McCrory signed the 2014-15 budget bill.
That bill, moved the SBI to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety[13] for administrative purposes (i.e. human resources, payroll, etc.
[14] Cooper said that this action could reduce the SBI's independence in cases where it had to investigate the executive branch, other state departments, and members of the General Assembly.
"When a U.S. Attorney or a prosecutor calls on the SBI, they want them to be an independent agency that can help find the truth," Cooper said while talking to the Charlotte Observer in March 2014.
He suggested that no elected politician should directly oversee the department; rather it should be headed by a director, to be appointed to an eight-year term by the governor, in an effort to buffer the office from changes in administrations.
In December of 2023, under the direction of the North Carolina General Assembly the SBI left the Department of Public Safety and became an independent cabinet level agency.