The OSBI assists the county sheriff offices and city police departments of the state, and works independent of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety to investigate criminal law violations within the state at the request of statutory authorized requesters.

In the early 1920s gangs of outlaws roamed the state robbing and burglarizing banks and terrorizing the citizens of many Oklahoma towns.

The United States Marshals Service was the only law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction, but its officers were outnumbered by the bandits.

A year after its creation, the Bureau's three agents or operatives were credited with reducing the number of bank robberies in the state by roughly 75 percent.

In 1939, the Bureau was taken out from under the direction of the Adjutant General's Office and became a division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.

In general, the OSBI Commission appoints the Director, hears complaints, establishes guidelines and serves as a buffer between the Bureau and potential political pressures concerning any particular investigations.

For almost one hundred years, the OSBI has been utilizing innovative techniques and expertise to solve the most serious crimes in Oklahoma.

Continually enhancing the science and technology available for evidence testing, the OSBI achieved accreditation for the laboratory system in 2001.

The OSBI maintains the tradition of serving the citizens of Oklahoma as the state's premier law enforcement agency.

The OSBI is responsible for serving as the lead scientific agency for the Oklahoma law enforcement community.

The Oklahoma Legislature has directed OSBI to maintain a nationally accredited scientific laboratory to assist all law enforcement agencies in the discovery and detection of criminal activity.

[1] OSBI Agents partner with other state, county, and local law enforcement agencies to detect crime.

The Division is divided into six regional investigative offices with geographic based jurisdiction and five headquarters investigative units with functional based authority and State-wide jurisdiction: Regional Investigative Units Headquarters Units Created in 1953, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's Criminalistics Services Division (CSD) provides services out of two laboratories and three evidence receiving facilities throughout the State with the following services offered: Latent Evidence, Firearms & Toolmarks, Forensic Biology (including CODIS), Trace Evidence, Controlled Substances, and Forensic Toxicology.

Its purpose is to handle the increased demand for information by law enforcement agencies across the state as well as the public.

[6] This user, Jules at OSBI, in accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, discloses that they have been paid by {{{Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation}}} for their contributions to Wikipedia.