The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the U.S. state of Georgia that assists the state's police epartments and courts. The agency is divided into three parts; the Investigative Division, the Division of Forensic Sciences (State Crime Laboratory) and the Georgia Crime Information Center. Governor Eurith D. Rivers was instrumental in the creation of the department in March 1937, when a law was passed creating the Department of Public Safety which included the Georgia State Patrol and a plainclothes investigative division which was the precursor of the bureau. Any crime committed on state property or on state highways came under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was also authorized to assist in criminal investigations when requested to do so by local law enforcement officials or agencies.