Prentiss is paid a visit from a North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) captain, an SBI is a state-level law enforcement agency in some states. Most states have a single state-level law enforcement agency, which they call the State Police and the officers are called State Troopers. State police have jurisdiction anywhere inside state lines and are responsible for enforcing traffic laws on state highways and and interstate freeways; they also often support county sheriff and local city police departments with major criminal investigations like homicides, drug trafficking and sexual assault, and if a person crosses county lines during the commission of a crime state police take jurisdiction. State police are also tasked with security in the state capitol building and protecting the governor, the governor of a state is always accompanied by state troopers when leaving the building.
Some states however have their state law enforcement split into two different agencies: the Highway Patrol and a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). In those states the highway patrol is responsible for enforcing traffic laws on state highways and interstate freeways and the SBI is responsible for investigation of major crimes that occur at the state-level and in supporting local law enforcement agencies; they also act as security in the capitol and as protection details for the governor. Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee all have at least two separate state-level law enforcement agencies. The most famous and well known SBI agency would be the Texas Rangers, since 1935 they have fulfilled the role of a state bureau of investigation; the Texas Rangers were founded in 1823 as an all volunteer unit tasked with protecting the Mexican border and defending settlers against bandits and Indians.
