Professional Standards

Our Professional Standards Unit is made up of one Captain, one Lieutenant, and two Sergeants. All members of the unit are assigned to other areas within the department, but work in the unit as needed. It receives its authority directly from the Assistant Chief of Police. The unit is a neutral investigative entity whose overall objective is to ensure that the integrity of the department remains intact. That objective is maintained through systematic investigations which are objective, fair, and unbiased. For the purpose of impartiality, members of the unit are involved only in the fact-finding process of an investigation and are not involved in any disciplinary decisions.

The function of the unit is to investigate allegations of police misconduct ranging from discourtesy to violations of criminal statutes. The investigations are for the purpose of internal department review and not for criminal prosecution. The unit tracks all complaints and commendations for all department employees. It is also responsible for tracking all pursuits, discharge of firearms, and use of force incidents. This is done to ensure an officer’s actions were within the parameters of department policy and procedure and appropriate to the situation. The unit also does random audits of the drug buy fund in the Narcotics Section.