SBI open house in Raleigh showcases law enforcement careers beyond patrols

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation used a Raleigh open house to make one point clear to students and job seekers: public safety careers are not limited to a badge and a gun. At a time when agencies across North Carolina are still trying to rebuild their ranks, SBI recruiters showed how a state law-enforcement career can begin in roles that never put someone behind a patrol wheel.

Special agent in charge of recruitment Amanda Nosalek said the agency offers many ways to serve, including behind-the-scenes work in intelligence and other specialties. The open house gave visitors a closer look at the technology and equipment agents use every day, with hands-on exposure to the computer crimes unit, crime scene investigation and the bomb squad. For Wake County residents, the message landed close to home: the SBI’s headquarters is in Raleigh, and the Capital District office serves Wake County along with Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Orange, Person, Warren and Vance counties.

The event fit into a larger staffing push. The North Carolina Department of Justice has said there were 506 fewer recruits taking the Basic Law Enforcement Training exam in 2022 than in 2019, and the state also recorded 492 more law-enforcement separations than new appointments between 2020 and 2021. Against that backdrop, the SBI is pitching itself not just to people who want to investigate cases, but to those who want to work in technical and analytical roles that support investigations from the start.

The agency’s careers page lists sworn special-agent jobs alongside non-sworn positions such as criminal intelligence analysts, crime analysts, fingerprint technicians and administrative staff. Its internship program is aimed at college juniors, seniors and graduate students, with unpaid placements in the summer, fall and spring. That creates a direct pipeline for Triangle students weighing majors, internships and first jobs against a state agency that says it needs more talent.

The SBI also highlighted specialized units that show how broad the work has become. The bomb squad, created in 1973, is certified at the FBI Hazardous Devices School. The Computer Crimes Unit says it has 17 full-time special agents stationed around the state. NC DPS lists the SBI workforce at 255 agents, a reminder that even a long-running agency established in 1937 is still competing to staff the next generation of public-safety work.