Investigative Services

Deputy Chief:
Deputy Chief Michael Smith

Personal Crimes &
Property Crimes:
Inspector Billy Garrett

Investigations

The Investigative Services branch of the Memphis Police Department is responsible for thoroughly reviewing the details surrounding every crime committed in Memphis. Investigative Services works closely with all divisions of the Memphis Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to solve crime.

Investigative Services is separated into two divisions: Personal Felonies, which handles homicides, sexual assaults, and crimes of an immediate personal nature; and Property Felonies, which handles burglary, auto theft, and incidents where property theft is the principal crime involved.

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Personal Felonies

• Sex Crimes/Child Abuse
• Homicide Squad
• Robbery Squad
• Felony Response
• Domestic Violence
• Missing Persons
• Felony Assault

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Sex Crimes/Juvenile Abuse

This unit is responsible for handling investigations involving any sexual or physically abusive crime. In 2006, the Sex Crimes/Juvenile Abuse Squad reviewed 1,738 cases which included 372 rapes, 205 forcible fondling, and 136 stalking complaints. Sex Crimes reported a clearance rate of 46% for rape cases.

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Homicide

The Homicide Bureau is responsible for conducting all investigations related to homicides, suicides, and natural or accidental deaths. In 2006, Memphis recorded 160 homicides compared to 153 in 2005. The Homicide Bureau was able to clear 81.8% of all homicides in 2006. Additionally, Homicide made 154 arrests and investigated 2,879 cases.

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Robbery

This unit investigates robberies citywide, including business robberies and bank robberies. During 2006, the Robbery Squad handled 5,818 complaints - an increase of 889 complaints from 2005's total of 4,929. These cases included 812 business robberies, 586 carjackings, 347 home invasion robberies, 22 ATM robberies and 31 bank robberies. The Robbery Squad arrested 791 adults and 276 juveniles for robbery in 2006. The clearance rate for the Robbery Squad was 21.8%.

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Felony Response

This unit handles preliminary investigations of all types of crime classifications. Offenses investigated include: rape, homicide, robbery, burglary, and larceny. In 2006, Felony Response handled 4,643 calls and made 2,960 arrests.

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Domestic Violence

The Domestic Violence Unit (DV) is responsible for investigating incidents involving domestic violence. The DV Unit works closely with the Citizens Dispute Office and the Shelby County Sheriff's Office regarding Domestic Violence warrants and protective orders.

In 2006, the DV Unit reviewed 21,130 cases which included 3,093 aggravated assaults and 18,037 simple assaults. The DV Unit arrested 3,814 individuals in 2006- 3,230 adults and 584 juveniles.

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Missing Persons

The Missing Persons Unit handles all cases involving missing persons and runaways. During 2006, Missing Persons investigators handled 4,468 cases. Of those cases 1,415 were missing persons and 2,829 were runaways.

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Felony Assault

This unit was formed in August of 2005 to aggressively investigate aggravated assaults in the same manner as homicides.

During the first few months of the Felony Assault Unit's existence the investigators assigned to this unit handled 1,475 aggravated assault cases - clearing 46.1% of all cases. In 2006, after a full year of handling cases, the Felony Assault Unit worked 2,188 aggravated assaults clearing 58% of those cases.

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Property Felonies

• General Assignment
• Economic Crimes Bureau
• Auto Theft
• Burglary Squad
• Felony Response

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Economic Crimes

Economic Crimes Bureau is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of individuals involved in felony crimes, especially white collar crimes. Crimes investigated include forgeries, counterfeit checks, counterfeit credit and debit cards, computer fraud, insurance fraud, and various other forms of financial institution fraud. In 2006, investigators handled 7,692 cases, made 693 arrests and cleared 1,204 cases for a 17.62% clearance rate.

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Vehicle Theft

Vehicle Theft is responsible for the prompt handling of citizen complaints regarding the theft of vehicles and thefts from vehicles. During 2006, the Vehicle Theft Squad handled 23,717 complaints and made 1,155 arrests. Of those arrested, 976 were adults and 179 were juveniles. The vehicle recovery rate for 2006 was 69%. The auto theft clearance rate was 8.2% in 2006.

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General Assignment

This unit is designed to respond to cases such as simple assault, aggravated assault, larceny under $500.00, missing persons, accidental injuries, and reckless endangerment. Investigators assigned to General Assignment Bureau handle walk-in complaints and works in conjunction with the Citizens Dispute Office. In 2006, GAB handled 2 aggravated and 6,524 simple assaults, 5,735 shopliftings,  10,854 vandalisms, 4,704 intimidations, and 6,174 miscellaneous.

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Burglary

The Burglary Squad is responsible for investigating residential and business burglaries, as well as all theft of interstate shipments. The Burglary Bureau handled 16,135 burglaries and made 1,380 arrests during 2006. The clearance rate for the Unit's total case load was 9.73%.

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Support Units

• Crime Scene Investigations
• Bomb Squad

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Crime Scene

This unit processes and secures evidence at the scene of major crimes. The officers collect and preserve physical evidence and record each scene with the use of photographs, crime scene sketches, charts, maps, evidence inventories, and detailed descriptive reports. Latent Print Services, Fingerprint Services, and the Bomb Squad were all part of the Crime Scene Unit in 2005. In 2001 the Crime Scene Unit obtained a new state-of-the art mobile crime response vehicle for deployment to major crime scenes as well as an enclosed trailer to store equipment needed at remote crime scene sites.

In 2006, officers and employees assigned to this unit responded to 6,523 calls for service, took 99,398 photographs, made 2,319 evidence inventories, lifted 11,728 latent fingerprints and compared 62,497 latent fingerprints.

Latent Print Services is staffed by civilian personnel and are responsible for the examination and identification of latent prints that are retrieved from the scene of a crime.

Fingerprint Services is also staffed by civilians and maintains fingerprints and photographic files on all city employees that are required to be printed.

The Crime Scene Investigations Unit is staffed by one major, two lieutenants, twenty-four patrol officers, and six civilians.

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Bomb Unit
The Bomb Unit is also a part of the Crime Scene Investigations Unit. This elite, highly specialized unit is trained to respond to emergency situations involving all suspicious package calls. They are the only unit capable of rendering an explosive device safe. They are responsible for bomb sweeps on dignitary protection details and conduct lectures throughout the city on bomb threat plans.