The Police Department provides law enforcement and policing services to the City of Santa Clara. We have an authorized strength of 148 sworn officers, 48 civilian employees and 32 reserves.

The Police Department responds to approximately 40,000 calls for service each year. The Police Department has an annual budget of approximately $30,000,000.00.The department is divided into three divisions.

The Field Operations Division (Patrol) responds to the vast majority of calls for service and is made up of patrol teams, a motorcycle traffic unit, traffic and hit-and-run investigators, community service officers, parking control and abandoned vehicle abatement personnel and the Special Enforcement Team. Also under Field Operations is the Reserve Police Officer program, 32 sworn Reserve Officers who assist the department in our policing duties.The Community Policing sergeant and the Northside Police Facility officers are also assigned to this division.

The Investigations Division (Detective Bureau) is responsible for the majority of follow up investigations, especially for major crimes. Investigators are assigned by type of crime, which includes homicide, assaults, robbery, theft, burglary, financial crimes and juvenile crimes.

The Administrative Services Division is made up of the Chief's Office, the Community Services Unit (CSU), the Professional Standards Unit (PSU), our Temporary Holding Facility (THF) and the Records Unit. CSU is responsible for Neighborhood and Business Watches, Crime Prevention, Police Activities League (PAL), Permits and the various school services (DARE, School Resource Officers, and Crossing Guards). PSU is charged with hiring and training all departmental personnel, conducting Internal Affairs investigations, and cataloging, storing and arranging for the disposition of all property and evidence. Our THF is used to process individuals arrested in our City. Records tracks and processes all police-related paperwork (offense and accident reports, citations, etc.) and the numerous requests we receive from outside agencies for copies of documents.