Investigations

Crimes Against Property bureaus handles burglary, vehicle theft, larceny and incidents where property theft is the principal crime involved.

· Burglary

· Economic Crimes

· General Assignment

· Vehicle Theft

Burglary Bureau handles all residential, business, and non-residential burglaries. Burglary monitors all Pawn Shops, Junk, and Scrap Metal Dealers in the city.

The Burglary Bureau handled 14,858 burglaries and made 1,269 arrests during 2007. The clearance rate for the Unit's total caseload was 10.07%.

Economic Crimes Bureau handles individuals and groups engaged and participating in criminal conduct involving forgery, check fraud, use of access devices (checks, credit and debit cards), counterfeiting access devices (checks, credit and debit cards, skimming and re-encoding), counterfeit audio cassette tapes, video tapes, CDs and DVDs, counterfeit clothing and trademarks, embezzlement, impersonation, elder financial crimes, identity theft, computer and internet crimes, insurance and estate frauds.

In 2007, investigators handled 7,050 cases, made 423 arrests and cleared 846 cases for a 12% clearance rate.

General Assignment Bureau handles simple assault offenses (except those classified as domestic violence or child abuse), accidental injuries, animal injuries, bribery, escapees, intimation, pocket-pickings, shopliftings, suspicious persons, theft from coin operated machines/devices, threatening/obscene/harassing phone calls, vandalisms, weapon law violations, and stolen property offenses for which the property reported stolen in the original report was assigned to General Assignment. Investigators assigned to General Assignment Bureau handle walk-in complaints and works in conjunction with the Citizens Dispute Office.

In 2007, GAB handled 5 aggravated and 6,693 simple assaults, 6,807 shopliftings, 10,652 vandalisms, 4,932 intimidations, and 5,459 miscellaneous offenses.

Vehicle Theft Bureau handles thefts of any vehicle whose primary purpose is to transport people and thefts of property from any motorized vehicle licensed for use on roadways. Vehicle Theft also handles the theft of motorized construction /farm equipment capable of propulsion by land and the theft of watercraft.

During 2007, the Vehicle Theft Bureau handled 21,807 complaints and made 1,213 arrests. Of those arrested, 1,016 were adults and 197 were juveniles. The vehicle recovery rate for 2007 was 69.7%. The vehicle theft clearance rate was 23% in 2007.

Support Units:

Felony Response handles preliminary investigations of all types of crime classifications (murder, aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, fraud, motor vehicle theft, etc.) between 4pm and 8am.

In 2007, Felony Response handled 4,506 calls and made 2,773 arrests.

Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) is a 24 hour/7 days a week citywide operation. CSI processes and secures evidence at the scene of major crimes. The officers collect and preserve physical evidence and record each scene with the use of photographs, crime scene sketches, charts, maps, evidence inventories, and detailed descriptive reports. CSI is comprised of commissioned police officers, latent fingerprint technicians, and latent print examiners, all who are equally important in carrying out the responsibilities of the unit.

In 2007, officers and employees assigned to this unit responded to 5,197 calls for service, took 84,952 photographs, made 1,824 evidence inventories, lifted 10,376 latent fingerprints and compared 75,383 latent fingerprints.