The Patrol Division consists of sworn officers assigned to four platoons. These officers work 12-hour shifts, providing 24-hour policing coverage to the City, 365 days a year.
The Patrol Division is the backbone of any police department, and our Department is no different. Patrol Officers are tasked with answering calls for service, conducting thorough preliminary investigations, enforcing traffic ordinances and laws, investigating accidents, making arrests for criminal offenses, serving criminal process, and providing proactive patrolling of the City's streets and neighborhoods.
Officers use crime mapping and analysis, along with traffic analysis and citizen complaints to target specific locations or actions for proactive patrol and/or traffic enforcement efforts. We call these efforts "Directed Patrols," and the locations of these efforts are changed on a regular basis to best utilize resources in our efforts to protect the citizens of Bristol.
