Investigations Division

The Investigation Division consists of the Criminal Investigations Section, the Special Operations Section and the Community Response Section. These sections are responsible for the timely and professional follow-up investigation of most felony persons and property crimes, gang related incidents and graffiti identification and removal, drug investigations, investigations that involve schools and juveniles, neighborhood livability issues, crime prevention and volunteers, and neighborhood drug activity complaints.

The Criminal Investigations Section is comprised of three units; the Crimes Against Persons Unit, the Crimes Against Property Unit, and the Identification Laboratory. The unit will continue community policing efforts by partnering with the community, including ""No Meth - Not in My Neighborhood!"" and related efforts. Support of grass roots community efforts are vital if we are to reduce crime and improve the quality of life in Salem.

The Crimes Against Persons unit will continue to focus it efforts on the timely and professional investigation of felony crimes against persons, such as murder, robbery and rape. The Crimes Against Property unit will investigate felony crimes involving theft of property, forgery and fraud, and arson. The crime lab will continue to process evidence, such as fingerprint identification.

The Special Operations Section is comprised of the Youth Services Unit, the Drug Enforcement Task Force, and the Gang Enforcement Team, which includes the Graffiti Abatement Program.

The Youth Services Unit officers continue to investigate crimes that occur in the schools or involve juveniles in a timely and professional manner. They will continue to work with community partners in efforts to intervene prior to youth delinquency and will actively participate in the multi-jurisdiction Student Threat Assessment Team to aggressively address and deter potential school and community violence.

The Drug Enforcement Task Force is a multi-agency group that includes the Salem Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Oregon State Police and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

The Gang Enforcement Team is currently staffed by two officers and is being supervised by a Sergeant. The team continues to investigate and attempt to eliminate gang related violence and activity in the community. The Graffiti Abatement Program team will continue with neighborhood education and graffiti identification and removal assistance.

The Community Response Section is comprised of the Community Response Team and the Drug Activity Response Team. The Crime Prevention program and the Volunteer program are a part of the Community Response Team. They work to actively and aggressively address criminal activity which affects livability in the neighborhoods of Salem by addressing those issues in a timely manner, using different combinations of resources available to the teams.

The Community Response Team handles crime, nuisance and drug properties involving lengthy investigations which patrol officers do not have the time for. The team will aggressively work high crime areas of the city focusing on those crimes most directly related to drug activity such as burglary, thefts, car clouts, and other property crimes.

The Investigations Division has 67.5 FTE:  One Deputy Chief, three Lieutenants, six Sergeants, three Corporals, forty six Officers, one Management Analyst I, two Administrative Analysts I, two Lab Technicians, one Staff Assistant II, one Records Technician, one Office Assistant II, and one half time Office Assistant I.