Chesterfield Police 2001 Annual Report

Administrative Support Bureau

The Administrative Support Bureau is responsible for the management of the Administrative Services Division and the Planning and Information Services Division. The bureau commander reports directly to the chief of police and manages the responsibilities of recruitment and selection of police department employees, departmental performance planning and fiscal management, and payroll preparation and annual-leave maintenance. Department automation, criminal-history records and crime analysis are also functions managed by the Administrative Support Bureau commander.

Finance Unit

The Finance Unit manages and prepares the police department's departmental-performance plan, annual budget and the capital-improvement plan; manages grants; maintains and monitors the department's budget for fiscal control; maintains and monitors all purchases for the department; and maintains the administrative tasks associated with the false-alarm ordinance. The Finance Unit also manages the department's time accounting function and payroll preparation, and the financial management of the false alarm ordinance.

Accomplishments

• Maintained fiscal control of more than $200,000 in state and federal seized asset funds. Current law allows departments that seize such assets as part of criminal apprehensions to use the money generated to purchase equipment and training for their use.
• Managed more than $2.5 million worth of state and federal grants
• Maintained fiscal control of a $31 million dollar budget
• Implemented process and form improvements for the security-alarm system, including the creation of an "Alarm Notification" door hanger used by uniform officers when responding to security-alarm calls
• Served on several countywide process action teams
• Coordinated and participated in several civic projects including the United Way Campaign, County Blood Drive Committee, Heart Walk and Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society

Police Personnel Unit

The Police Personnel Unit is responsible for a variety of functions. Its primary focus is the recruitment, testing, background investigation and selection of personnel to be presented to the chief of police for employment consideration. The unit is also responsible for the administration of promotional processes, including the department's career development program. A secondary, but major function of the unit is conducting background investigations and processing the various types of permits and licenses available in the county.

Accomplishments

• Completed 213 background investigations of prospective police department employees. Of these, the department hired 51 police officers and 30 individuals for non-sworn positions. The personnel selected as police recruits began their training in one of two Basic Academy classes or three Pre-Certified Officer Academies.
• Completed 559 background investigations of applicants for various permits
• Began implementation of establishing electronic employee files

Analysis, Intelligence and Information Retrieval Unit

The Analysis, Intelligence and Information Retrieval Unit encompasses crime, intelligence, traffic, narcotics analysis and information retrieval, all supervised by a police analysis/ information coordinator.

The Crime/Intelligence/Narcotics Analysis Section

Responsible for identifying persons involved in criminal activity, as well as identifying crime patterns, trends and high-crime areas. Recurring reports are prepared to assist officers and detectives with crime prevention and resolution.

Accomplishments

• Organized the Regional Narcotics Group in which analysts and investigators meet monthly to exchange information regarding drug activity
• Participated in a regional presentation on an analysis of robberies to a group called Leadership Metro Richmond
• Organized a terrorist-related intelligence program after September 11, 2001. All information is entered into the Crime Intell Data Base. The Chesterfield County Police Department was the first law-enforcement agency in the Richmond metropolitan area to computerize the intelligence gathering process
• Assisted detectives in a homicide case by providing a name of a possible suspect, which ultimately led to the arrest of several people

The Traffic Analysis Section

The Traffic Analysis Section is responsible for identifying and analyzing problem areas on county roadways and serving as a liaison between the Virginia Department of Transportation and Chesterfield County Department of Transportation. The traffic analyst also interacts with the public when fulfilling citizen requests.

Accomplishments

• Generated in-depth analysis of all traffic fatalities

Information Retrieval Section

The Information Retrieval Section is responsible for designing and writing programs to retrieve information from all police department automated files in order to provide management information and other type reports to users throughout the department, to the media and public.

Accomplishments

• Utilized electronic formats to disseminate multiple daily, weekly and monthly management and crime reports.

Planning and Information Unit

The Planning and Information Management Unit encompasses Planning and Grants and application development and is supervised by an automation coordinator. This unit also interacts with the Chesterfield County Department of Information Systems Technology (IST) for coordination, analysis, and planning of the department's automated systems. Major focus points concentrate on enhancing the police Records Management System, mobile computing and statistical reporting.

Systems Analyst and Program Coordination

The Systems Analyst Program Coordination Section is responsible for computer hardware and software utilized by all areas of the department. The analysts troubleshoot and repair the problems and breakdowns encountered by all personnel using computers operating on the department's Local Area Network (LAN) and remote sites. They also provide technical advice to the department's administration on changes in technology and coordinate all department-automated changes with the county's Department of Information Systems Technologies (IST).

Planning and Grants

The Planning and Grants Section is staffed by one police planner who researches potential sources for grant funding and prepares all grant applications. Additionally, this position monitors and completes all quarterly and annual progress reports for each grant, as well as internal reports and projects.

Accomplishments

• Instrumental in applying for and having awarded $976,936 worth of new and supplemental, or renewal, grants with which equipment was purchased and additional personnel were hired.
• Received national consideration for an award highlighting our community policing efforts.

Records and Booking Unit

The Records and Booking Unit consists of two 24-hour operations, records and booking. The Records Unit is the information repository for all criminal, accident, arrest and related reports generated by the department. All reports are received, reviewed, coded and entered into the department's automated Records Management System. This unit also collects, collates and transmits information monthly to the Virginia State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning criminal activity in Chesterfield County. The Booking Unit is primarily responsible for the processing of all persons arrested in Chesterfield County to include taking their fingerprints on the department's LiveScan Automated Fingerprint Identification System, photographing the individuals and conducting breath alcohol testing when indicated.

Accomplishments

• Received more than 27,000 reports and maintained a 99.4 percent accuracy rate
• Selected by Virginia State Police to participate in a pilot program to determine the feasibility of submitting reports via the Internet
• Conducted round-the-clock research to assist all officers and detectives

Back To Top