Police Patrol

The mission of the Abilene Police Department Patrol Division is to protect the lives and property of all citizens. The Division dedicates its personnel and material resources to maintaining public order and safeguarding the individual and constitutional rights of all persons.

The Patrol Division is the most visible unit within the Department. With more than one hundred officers and supervisors, the Division comprises more than sixty percent of the Department's authorized strength. The Division is the first responder to most calls for police service.

The Division has, in the past, been almost entirely reactive in nature. However, within the last few years the Division has begun the transition to Community Oriented Policing by taking a proactive approach to involve citizens in developing solutions to recurring crime problems. Using the principles of Problem Oriented Policing, officers and the public have begun to make an impact on these crime problems.

The Department has made a continuous effort to maintain effective communications using modern technology and equipment. All officers are issued departmental cell phones, and patrol units are equipped with Mobile Data Computers (MDCs) with links to national and state crime computers, other departmental units, and the Department Records Division. These phones and on-board computers offer multiple avenues of communication for officers from within their units, and are a large step in the Department’s direction of working toward a paperless department. There are plans in action to completely replace the Department’s communications system in order to better facilitate the needs of the community it serves.

The Abilene Police Department Patrol Division works from a six company configuration with four, ten hour days, fixed shifts, and fixed days off. Each company is managed by a lieutenant who reports to a deputy chief. Each company contains two or three squads, and each squad is supervised by a sergeant. A squad includes several patrol officers who work the same days and hours. Actual duty hours and number of officers per squad varies by company and squad. Squad size and duty hours are determined by analyzing work load. Officer assignment within the squads is determined once a year by seniority.

A normal duty week for a patrol officer consists of four, ten hour days. Officers work Sunday through Wednesday, or Wednesday through Saturday. This means that all patrol companies are assigned to work on Wednesdays, and therefore it is the only work day that may have varying hours. As all patrol officers are on duty on Wednesdays, that day is used as a training day for officers and to fill in some areas that need help elsewhere in the department. This scheduling has provided our department with a consistent training day each week that we can use to give officers the latest techniques and information in the law enforcement field. Our officers are offered about five times the amount of annual in-service training required by the state for law enforcement officers. Other assignments used on these fully staffed Wednesdays include assistance to the Investigations and Street Crimes Units, special patrols to target specific crimes or crime areas, conducting community-oriented policing projects, serving warrants, and providing selected traffic enforcement.