Patrol

The most visible and largest section of the Auburn Police Department is the Patrol Division, which consists of over 40 officers. Patrol includes the officers assigned to uniformed patrol, and the vast majority of the Emergency Response Team. Two programs, “C.O.P.- Community Oriented Policing and “DARE”- Drug Abuse Resistance Training, are extensions of the Patrol Division, but are largely administered by the C.O.P. supervisor. Special traffic assignments, such as Stop DWI Patrols, are also handled by patrol officers and administered by the traffic section and/or the training & planning section of the Auburn Police Department.

The patrol officers are often the only members of the Auburn Police Department with whom the public interacts. As the first to respond to dispatched calls, the officers represent not only patrol, but the Auburn Police Department as a whole. These officers on average handle 20,000 incidents per year and include a variety of situations, including criminal and non-criminal incidents. Examples of criminal incidents can range from homicide to assaults and larcenies, with non-criminal categories being neighbor disputes, motor vehicle accidents, and youth complaints. These incidents are either dispatched calls received by communications from citizens calling in, or generated by an officer on patrol who observes an incident requiring Police attention.

The Patrol Division operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and is divided into three eight hour shifts. The city, which totals 8.6 square miles, is divided into five sectors with each sector assigned one officer. Additional officers are assigned to “Cruiser Cars”, which are not limited to one specific sector and patrol the entire city.

Patrol Supervisors are assigned to each shift, with generally either a Captain or a Lieutenant being the primary commanding officer. The Supervisors are directly responsible for the patrol officers under their command as well as the enforcement of department procedures, regulations, orders and discipline. Supervisors also monitor on-going calls being handled by patrol officers, review reports, and offer guidance to officers when needed.

When patrol officers are not answering dispatched calls, they are encouraged to conduct proactive patrols, looking for traffic/parking violations, suspicious persons/situations, executing arrest warrants, and checking for any other incidents needing police attention.

As you can see, the Patrol Division is a diverse and varied portion of the Police Department. It’s Officers are always ready and able to handle a wide range of situations as well as serve the citizens of the Auburn community on an every day basis.