The Field Operations Division is comprised of patrol, criminal investigation, fleet management, and the motor deputy traffic unit. When you think about law enforcement, the Operations Division is what usually comes to mind first.
Field Operations for the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office are based out of the Sheriff’s Operations Center located at 3500 N Harlan Ave, Evansville, IN. It is a twenty-four hour, seven days a week operation where we provide a wide range of patrol and criminal investigative services.
Patrol Section
The motor patrol section operates 24 hours a day working four different shifts: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Relief. The Relief shift is a combination of 2 – 3rd shifts and 2 – 2nd shifts. The Field Operations Division also has 3, dual purposed canines assigned to three handlers on our night shifts. These canines are trained to detect several narcotics as well as track and apprehend felony suspects.
Motor Patrol has several task during the course of the day, this is to include but not limited to: first responder for general calls of service; patrolling the county neighborhoods and businesses to deter crime; take reports ranging from animal complaints to burglaries; first responders for serious traffic accidents; service of subpoenas; service of misdemeanor & felony warrants; and conducting special details assigned by the Sheriff or his designee.
Fleet Management
The Fleet Management sergeant is in charge of maintaining the Sheriff Office fleet of vehicles and the purchase of new vehicles. He is also responsible for the supervision of the Civil Process Unit and Operations Center reception.
The Fleet Management sergeant also supervises the Motor Deputy Traffic unit. The Motor Deputy Traffic Unit comprises of two deputies who patrol the county roadways on motorcycles enforcing traffic laws. These deputies are in charge of child seat installment and education. They are also involved in several details in the community and make several appearances for organization on behalf of the Sheriff and the Sheriff’s Office.
Investigations
The Criminal Investigations Section is comprised of deputies assigned to investigate general criminal complaints, narcotics violations and to maintain the Sex Offender Registry.
Sheriff’s deputies assigned to General Criminal Investigations investigate crimes ranging from thefts to murder. One detective is specifically tasked with investigating crimes involving Domestic Violence as well as coordinating with the various services and organizations that exist to aid victims of domestic violence.
The Sheriff’s Office has joined with the Evansville Police Department and the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office and formed the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force. This task force was specifically created to target local drug traffickers in the most efficient manner possible. Members of all three agencies work together out of a separate office. This joint investigative approach allows for the pooling of manpower and resources as well as avoiding parallel investigations on the local dealers.
The Sex Offender Registry has a deputy assigned whose full-time responsibility is to maintain the local Sex Offender Registry and monitor and enforce compliance with the various rules and restrictions placed upon those persons deemed to be required to register as Sex Offenders.
In addition, deputies in that section are assigned to several federal task forces. These deputies are called Task Force Officers (TFO’s) and are assigned full-time to the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force for the apprehension of wanted persons (with an emphasis on violent felonies), The Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force for the investigation of high-level narcotics traffickers and the FBI Cyber Task Force which primarily investigates child pornography and crimes related to computer-hacking.