The ROC's modern criminal police system was built upon the foundations laid down in 1946, during which the National Police Department（NPD）was established under the auspices of the Ministry of the Interior（MOI）. This early centralized system consisted of a Criminal Affairs Division and a Crime Laboratory under NPD, as well as Criminal Sections for each Province. Meanwhile, the Provincial Police Investigation Brigades were renamed as the Criminal Police Brigades.
In 1945 with Taiwan's sovereignty retroceded to the ROC, the Taiwan Provincial Police Administration（TPPA）was established under the purview of Taiwan Provincial Administration Office. TPPA set up an Investigation Unit under its First Section and a Forensic Science Unit under its Third Section. Till August 1946, TPPA integrated the above mentioned units together with the Research Unit to form the Criminal Affairs Office.
In 1946, the central government upgraded NPD to the National Police Service（NPS）.
On May 15, 1947, following the establishment of Taiwan Provincial Government, TPPA took the helm of police affairs in Taiwan according to the Operational Regulations of the Taiwan Provincial Government.
In 1949, the ROC government retreated to Taiwan and strictly implemented the program of organizational downsizing which resulted in changing NPS back to NPD.
In May 1958, the Criminal Police Corps was reorganized into the Criminal Police Brigade of the Taiwan Provincial Police Bureau. The administrative and investigative functions within the brigade were merged with the judicial affairs of the Police Bureau to form the Criminal Division, making both the brigade and the division internal units of the Police Bureau. The detective teams that were originally under various county and city police stations were reassigned to their respective police stations, and the previously established Judicial Section was renamed the Criminal Section.
It was not until July 1965 that the Criminal Police Brigade was restructured as a directly subordinate unit
On July 15, 1972, NPD was reorganized into the National Police Agency（NPA）, which operated with TPPA for the purpose of streamlining the organization and saving the budget.
On September 1, 1973, the government established the Criminal Investigation Bureau （CIB） under the command of the Director-General of NPA to direct and supervise the criminal affairs nationwide, as well as to undertake responsibility of the Provincial Criminal Police Corps. All Criminal Affairs Sections under City/County Police Stations were integrated into the Criminal Police Brigades. As Taipei and Kaohsiung were declared municipalities successively, the Criminal Police Brigades in both cities were expanded to the Criminal Police Corps. Following these reforms, the criminal police system of the ROC was upgrated to a full-fledged stage.
On March 28, 1974, the Director-General of NPA ordered CIB to take over duties of the National Central Bureau Taipei （NCB Taipei）to liaise with the International Criminal Police Organization （Interpol）. On July 1st, 1979, CIB set up the International Criminal Affairs Division (ICAD) , which served as the designated contact point to execute NCB’s missions and was fully in charge of the management of international police collaboration.
In February 1979, in order to cope with the changing nature of criminality, CIB reorganized its structure into 7 Divisions（Crime Prevention Affairs Division, Crime Investigation Affairs Division, Legal Affairs Division, Criminal Records Division, Forensic Science Division, Explosion Prevention Division and International Criminal Affairs Division）, 6 Offices（Fingerprint Office, Forensic Biology Office, Supervising and Directing Office, Criminal Science Research Office, General Affairs Office and Public Security Office ）and 3 Teams（the 1st Investigation Brigades, the 2nd Investigation Brigade, and the Safeguard Team）.
In May 1983, the Interpol Radio Station was set up following a revamp of the CIB structure.
In April 1985, the Explosion Prevention Division was transformed into a special event handling brigade to better meet its operational needs.
On December 23, 1994, in response to the promulgation of the CIB Organization Regulations, CIB became a legalized official agency. In accordance with the Follow-up Policing Constuction Project, CIB added in the Organized Crime Affairs Division, the Secretarial Office, the Information Management Office, and the Crime Prevention and Detection Commanding Center. Respectively, the General Affairs Office, the Supervising and Directing Office, the Criminal Science Research Office, and the Safeguard Team became known as the Logistical Service Division, the Internal Affairs Office, the Research and Development Office, and the Security Guard Unit.
In 1995, the Taiwan Provincial Police Administration （TPPA） was separated from NPA with the implementation of Local Autonomy Statutes in the ROC Constitution.
In 1998, with the downsizing of the provincial level of government, the TPPA Criminal Police Corps was dissolved and its personnel and responsibilities were merged into CIB.
On November 21, 2001, the Telecommunication Surveilance Center and the Public Relations Office were set up within CIB following the amendments of the CIB Organization Regulations. In addition, CIB legalized the status of the 7th, the 8th, and the 9th Investigation Brigades.
Aiming at strengthening scientific investigation force and fulfilling related resources, the Forensics Science Center was established to integrate the Fingerprint Office and the Forensic Biology Office on November 15, 2002. The center was operational with effect from February 21, 2003.
In order to broaden the crime prevention and investigation network, CIB set up Anti-Crime Centers stationed in both Middle Taiwan （The 6th Investigation Brigade） and Southern Taiwan（The 8th Investigation Brigade）on November 3, 2003 to further impose the function of localized crime control.
With the revolution of information and communication technology, it has inevitably allowed the booming developments of cybercrime, white-collar crimes, and economic crimes. To fight against these crimes more effectively, CIB combined the Research and Development Office, the Telecommunication Surveillance Center, the Information Management Center, and the 9th Investigation Brigade to form a mission-oriented Science and Technology Crime Prevention Center on April 1, 2006.
On July 16, 2007, CIB set up a mission-oriented Foreign Affairs Police Brigade, aiming to focus on transnational crime investigation and related intelligence exchange, which was subsequently renamed as International Criminal Investigation Brigade （ICIB） on May 4, 2009. As a major branch of the International Criminal Affairs Division (ICAD), ICIB has emerged to become the principal authority to conduct transnational criminal investigation in this country.
In order to enhance the solvability for technological crimes, the National Police Agency transferred the Telecommunication Police Unit under the command of CIB in November 2007.
To cope with the reorganization of central government agencies, CIB initiated its plan to stipulate (amend) its organization regulation (originally an organization act. However, the organization the fourth-level agency shall be governed by decrees), operational rules and organization list in 2009. After examined its position, reviewed its core missions and adjusted its internal organization and manpower according to its new functions relevant integrations, the Agency’s proposal was approved by Executive Yuan on December 24, 2013, where the first-level units changed from 31 units (8 divisions, 10 offices, 2 center, 1 radio station, 9 investigation squadrons and 1 police safety team) to 33 units (16 divisions, 5 offices, 1 center, 10 investigation corps and 1 police safety team). The adjustments include: mergers with international criminal police radio station and public security office; and establishment of Cross-Strait Affairs Division, Economic Crimes Division (from NPA), Government Ethics Office and Telecommunications Investigation Corps (legalization of functional telecommunications police brigade). As for the complement, 13 personnel were added in regard to NPA relevant economic affairs; 89 personnel from the telecommunications police brigade were transferred into CIB for the establishment of Telecommunications Investigation Corps; 94 personnel were added due to the legalization of 165 and new CIB personnel in central and southern Taiwan; and 7 personnel were transferred to the Prevention Section of NPA in regard to women and children safety relevant affairs. In brief, 189 personnel were increased in regard to the complement, making the total increased from 860 to 1049; whereas the authorized complement increased from 1011 to 1101. To comply with Basic Code Governing Central Administrative Agencies Organizations, to ensure the equality of official position in agencies at the same level and to respond to the demand of relevant affairs, Director of Internal Affairs Office is changed to Chief Inspector and Research and Development Division Chief, Supervisor is changed to Commander, Deputy Supervisor is changed to Deputy Commander, Section Chief is changed to Sub-division Chief or Supervisor, and Deputy Section Chief is changed to Deputy Supervisor. The entire proposal was officially implemented on January 1, 2014.
To comply with tendency of the international anti-drug crimes policy, CIB structured the current drug crime fighting operations and preventing business to effectively orchestrating crime prevention, expertise, and other cross-border intelligence units. On November 27th, 2015, CIB built Drug Enforcement Center (DEC) to comprehensively tailor anti-drug crime measurements and leverage the benefits of exchanging the human resource, work experiences, expertise, and intelligence integration. On December 11st, 2015, the DEC was legalized to note the determination of our government for facing and fighting drug crimes.
To fully realize the integration of intelligence resources and comprehensive cooperation between agencies, with the objective of apprehending heads of fraud syndicates, the Anti-Fraud Command Center of CIB (Criminal Investigation Bureau) was established on August 24th, 2016 to pursue cross-ministry, cross-agency, and cross-field collaboration, so as to implement multi-faceted Anti-Fraud task, and to seize fraud, with all mechanisms to protect our citizens from becoming the victims of fraud, and to ensure private property.
In light of international terrorist attack incidents occurring frequently in recent years, which have all caused heavy injuries and casualties, propels the denizens’ expectations on government’s anti-terrorist capability to rise significantly. The Executive Yuan, to avoid the public and relevant national infrastructure facilities from subjecting to the harm, has mobilized various competent government authorities to promulgate plans for critical security event or terrorist attack response. Among them, the Executive Yuan empowers the Bureau with pertinent counter attack, hostage rescue, suspect arrest, and related missions, and for which, the Bureau has grouped a mission-oriented team, “The terrorist eradication taskforce”, which has since December 25, 2017 been formally joined the force. The team aims to excel the anti-terrorist response capability and enforce relevant mobilization work.
On August 16, 2023, CIB formalized the mission-oriented team, “High-Tech Crime Center” and “Forensic Science Center” into legal entities (“Forensic Examination Division” was also renamed as “Forensic Physics and Chemistry Division”). Upon becoming a legal entity, the former aims to enhance the capacity of digital forensics, constructing an intelligence sharing network. Additionally, it can effectively integrate and utilize technological investigative resources, and specialize in handling information and communication security incidents. The latter seeks to consolidate forensic science capabilities. Besides, it can develop and improve various forensic science systems in line with judicial reform resolution.
On January 17th, 2024, the "Intellectual Property Rights Investigation Corps" was set up within CIB in response to the transfer of investigating violoations of intellectual property rights relevant laws and regulations from The Second Special Police Corps, NPA, MOI.
