About
the San Antonio Police Department
In 1846,
the San Antonio town council created the post of City Marshal. Around the beginning
of the 20th Century, the terms “Town Marshal” and “Chief of Police” were used interchangeably in the
City of San Antonio. Beginning in 1910, the chief executive of the San Antonio
Police Department was known only as the Chief of Police.
Today,
the San Antonio Police Department is a full service law enforcement agency that has an authorized strength of just over 2,000
sworn police officers. The San Antonio Police Department is primarily organized into two large bureaus: Operations and Support.
The Operations
Bureau of the San Antonio Police Department contains the Patrol Division. The
Patrol Division is divided into the North and South Patrol.
The Support
Bureau has entities such as the Investigations Division and Tactical Support Division. With in the Investigations Division,
the Major Crimes Section “is divided into 6 Units : The Homicide Unit includes Homicide, Assault and Traffic investigations;
the Sex Crimes Unit includes both a Sex Crimes and a Family Violence Detail; the Night Detectives Unit is responsible for
investigations between 7 pm and 5 am; the Youth Crimes Unit includes the Missing Persons Detail and Youth Crimes Detail; the
Financial Crimes Unit includes Forgery and Fraud investigations; and the Evidence Unit is responsible for collecting all crime
scene evidence.”
The Tactical
Support Division of the San Antonio Police Department contains a Tactical Response Unit, Special Operations, Traffic Section
and Crime Detection Section. The Crime Detection Section “has administrative
responsibilities for units that investigate Property, Vehicle Theft, Vice and Narcotics offenses, identify, target, and arrest
Repeat Offenders, and provide Electronic Surveillance support.”
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