About the Miami Beach Police Department

The Miami Beach Police Department is organized into four large divisions: Criminal Investigations Division; Support Services Division; Patrol Division; and, Technical Services Division. Like most municipal police agencies, the Patrol Division of the Miami Police Department is the largest, in terms of personnel.  The members of the Patrol Division are organized into three geographic districts.

The Criminal Investigations Division is organized into three units: Criminal Investigations; Strategic Investigations; and, the Special Victims Squad.  The Criminal investigations unit is organized by type of crime.  The Strategic Investigations Unit is responsible for the investigations of criminal violations involving narcotics, vice, prostitution, liquor law offenses, and organized crime activity, as well as gathering intelligence to aid in Homeland Defense. The Unit accomplishes this task by working closely with all local, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies. Special Victims detectives investigate crimes by and against juveniles in our community. The cases they handle range from sexual assaults, child and elderly abuse to missing persons and bicycle thefts as well as Internet Child Exploitations.

Among the units in the Support Services Division is the Professional Standards Unit of the Miami Beach Police Department.  The primary responsibility of the Professional Standards Unit is the planning and development of policies, procedures, rules, regulations, and programs which ensure that the Department and its employees maintain the highest level of professional service to the community. This is accomplished via an ongoing monitoring of the Department's operations to guarantee compliance with specific standards and procedures. This unit provides the overall function of quality control for the Department.

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