The Administration Division oversees the department's day-to-day operations. The division is comprised of the Chief of Police Brian Laird, the department's Public Information Officer, the Office of Professional Standards, Training, and Community Resources. The division is responsible for budget, personnel, accreditation, internal affairs, policy review, and all departmental training.
The Paducah Police Department's Professional Standards Unit is responsible for assisting with policy development, managing accreditation issues, investigating complaints against officers, tracking use of force (response to resistance), and assessing Homeland Security threats. The Training Officer, as a member of the Professional Standards Unit, maintains training records and ensures that officers receive the proper amount and type of training each year. The Paducah Police Department Officers receive and average of more than 9,000 training hours per year. The Community Engagement Officer is another part of the Administration Division. This officer makes presentations to community groups and organizations, increases awareness about the resources our department has to offer to the community, and coordinates community events.
The Operations Division is the most visible division of the Paducah Police Department. The division, led by the Assistant Chief of Operations, is responsible for enforcing all criminal and traffic laws. It is often called the backbone of the department for providing uniformed patrol to the City of Paducah 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Operations Division is responsible for acting as first responders for both emergency and non-emergency calls for service from the public, handling special assignments, and proactively addressing community concerns. The Department annually averages 45,000 to 50,000 calls for service including officer-initiated calls, regarding criminal offenses, complaints, traffic crashes, alarm activations, disturbances, and many other events. They also prepare preliminary reports on all crimes, investigate motor vehicle crashes, and provide many other basic police services to the community.
The Support Services Division of the Paducah Police Department is comprised of the following three units: the Drug Unit, the General Investigations Unit (GIU), and the Records and Evidence Unit. These units used to operate individually, but were combined in January 2010 and are led by the Assistant Chief of Support Services.
The Drug Unit engages in covert and overt operations in an effort to combat dangerous drugs, prescription drug abuse, and related activity in the Paducah area. The GIU is responsible for investigating felony cases against persons and large-scale property crimes. The Records Unit maintains all police reports completed by our officers in addition to body-worn and in-car camera videos, and investigative case files. The Evidence Unit is responsible for the security and accountability of all evidence and property seized by the Paducah Police Department's Sworn Officers. These specialized units are equally important in bringing an investigation to a successful conclusion and ensuring custody of records and evidence for criminal prosecution.
The 911 Communications Services Division became a division of the Paducah Police Department in 2019. It is the primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for McCracken County, and provides 911 emergency and non-emergency services for the 65,000 residents within the 251 square miles of McCracken County in Western Kentucky. The center is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with a yearly incoming call volume of over 160,000 combined telephone calls.
The division receives calls via 911 and many non-emergency telephone numbers for Law Enforcement, Fire, Medical and Rescue services in McCracken County. The telecommunicators are highly-trained in all areas of emergency and non-emergency situations and efficiently serve all of our member agencies and citizens in a professional and expeditious manner.
