Beat Officers

Under CAPS, a team of 8 to 9 beat officers is assigned to each of the City’s 277 police beats. Beat officers patrol the same beat on the same watch for at least a year. This allows beat officers to get to know the people on their beats, and community members to get to know their beat officers.

Beat teams are fully equipped, motorized police units. They patrol primarily in their squad cars, but sometimes on foot as well. Beat officers respond to calls for police service on their beats, especially those calls that are of a non-emergency nature.

This focus on beat integrity allows police and community to more closely monitor the problems on their beats, and to develop more effective solutions to those problems.