The San Antonio Police Department is the primary law enforcement force for the city of San Antonio, Texas. The SAPD is headquartered at 315 South Santa Rosa Street and is home to over 3,000 sworn officers and civilian staff. The mission of the SAPD, from their website is:
“The San Antonio Police Department is dedicated to improving the quality of life by creating a safe environment in partnership with the people we serve. We act with integrity to reduce fear and crime while treating all with respect, compassion, and fairness.
SAPD main Bureaus
The SAPD is divided into three main Bureaus. Besides the Service and Support Bureau, which handles the department’s administrative support and services, there are the Operations Bureau and the Operations Support Bureau.
The Operations Bureau has three main divisions within it, the Patrol South Division, the Patrol North Division and the Street Crimes Division. The Patrol North and South Divisions are each further subdivided into regional sections, with South having Central, South and West Patrol Sections and North having Northwest, North and East Patrol Sections. Each of these Patrol sections maintains its own, on site crisis response teams and property crime detectives and they all divide their activities into four shifts: Patrol “A” Shift, Patrol “B” Shift, Patrol “T” Shift and Patrol “C” Shift. The Street Crimes Division is comprised of three Sections. The Crime Control Section contains the POP (or Problem Oriented Policing) Unit (with the Mental health Detail under it), the Safe Street Task Force and the Gang Unit. The special investigation Section is home to the Robbery Unit and the Vehicle Crimes Unit. The Covert Section comprises the Narcotics Unit, the ROP (Repeat Offenders Program) Unit and the Vice Unit.
The Operations Support Bureau consists of 2 main divisions. The Tactical Support Division contains the Special Enforcement Section (which has the Special Enforcement Unit, DWI, the K-9 Detail and the Highway Interdiction Detail), the Homeland Security Emergency Operations Section (which has the Special Operations Unit, the SWAT Unit, the Bomb Squad Detail and the Crisis Negotiation Detail), and the Traffic Section (which has two Traffic Shifts, the Helicopter Detail and the School Crossing Guard Office). The Major Crimes & Intelligence Division contains the Major Crimes Section (which has the Homicide Unit, the Special Victims Unit, the Night CID Unit, the Crime Scene Unit and the Financial Crimes Unit) and the Communication and Intelligence Section (which handles communications and has the Southwest Texas Fusion Center containing the San Antonio Regional Intelligence Center, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Strategic Intelligence and Analytics).
The city of San Antonio, Texas has an estimated population of 1,380,123 residents and experiences an annual average of 90,809 crimes. Violent crime accounts for around 8 percent of those crimes with murders at 89 (0.06 per 1000 residents), rapes at 555 (0.40 per 1000 residents), robberies at 1,865 (1.35 per 1000 residents) and assaults at 4,538 (3.29 per 1000 residents) for a grand total of 7,047 violent crimes per annum (5.11 per 1000 residents). Property crimes account for the other 92 percent of those crimes with burglaries at 15,706 (11.38 per 1000 residents), thefts at 61,652 (44.67 per 1000 residents) and motor vehicle thefts at 6,404 (4.64 per 1000 residents) for a total of 83,762 property crimes per annum (60.69 per 1000 residents). Overall, a resident of San Antonio, Texas has a 1 in 196 chance to become a victim of violent crime and 1 in 16 chance of becoming a victim of a property crime each year.
The SAPD Records Office is located at the SAPD headquarters at 315 S. Santa Rosa St. Police Reports are available through this office and can be requested in person or by mail. To make the request by mail, you will need to download the Police Report Request Form (PDF), fill it out, and mail it with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a money order payable to the City of San Antonio to the San Antonio Police Department Records Office, 315 S. Santa Rosa, San Antonio, TX 78207. Fingerprinting and Identification Services are handles by the SAPD Identification Office, also located in the SAPD headquarters. Additional information on the services provided by the Records and Identification Offices and the fees those services entail can be viewed at Police Reports / Open Records.
Information on individuals recently arrested can be found by searching the online resource provided by Bexar County at the Bexar County Central Magistrate Search.
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