In an address to the Tennessee Press Association in January 1951, John M. Jones Sr., publisher of the Greeneville Sun, called for the creation of an unbiased state agency to assist local law enforcement in the investigation of serious crimes.

On March 14, 1951, Governor Gordon Browning signed a bill into law establishing the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification as the plainclothes division of the Department of Safety.

[1] Besides its headquarters in Nashville, the TBI has offices in Chattanooga, Columbia, Cookeville, Jackson, Johnson City, Knoxville, and Memphis.

[8] The divisions of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are:[9] Its incumbent director was appointed after previous director Mark Gwyn retired less than two years into his third term, amid controversies regarding nepotism in his hiring practices followed by a scathing audit by the comptroller's office which found he had overspent his budget for four years running.

[10][11] The interim director, Jason Locke, also came under investigation the day David B. Rausch was appointed due to a complaint received from his wife describing misuse of state funds during an affair with another state employee at the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.