The FBI investigates crimes of violence that fall within federal jurisdiction such as kidnapping, sexual exploitation of children, extortion, bank robberies, tampering with consumer products, gang-related violence, and assaults on federal officers. The FBI assists local and state law enforcement agencies through the apprehension of highly sought fugitives who may have fled interstate or internationally. The FBI also conducts investigations into criminal organizations involved in theft rings, the "fencing" of stolen property.

Additionally, the FBI is responsible for crimes which occur on government and Indian Reservations. In Arizona, the FBI expends considerable resources investigating crimes on government and Indian reservations because of the large percentage of Indian land in Arizona. There are nineteen Indian reservations which constitute over twenty-five percent of the land area in Arizona. 

Safe Trails Task Force

Crime rate statistics in Indian Country reveal that the incidence of violent crime in Indian Country is significantly higher than the national average. On March 3, 1994, the FBI initiated "Operation Safe Trails" with the Navajo Department of Law Enforcement, in Flagstaff, Arizona. The purpose of the operation, which would later evolve into the Safe Trails Task Force (STTF) program, was to unite the FBI with other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to combat the continuing growth of violent crime in Indian Country. There are three STTF funded by the FBI in Arizona, the Arizona STTF in Flagstaff, the Fort Apache STTF in Lakeside-Pinetop, and the Tohono O'odham STTF in Tucson.

FBI Phoenix works closely with local, state, and tribal agencies in all of its violent crime investigations.