Bethlehem Police Department

About Us

The Bethlehem Police Department is a progressive modern police department with 149 sworn officers and more than 40 civilian employees.

The Bethlehem Police Department is structured using the community policing philosophy and is committed to community and police partnership. The department structure has three divisions: Operations, Criminal Investigations and Professional Standards. We also operate our own 9-1-1 Command Center.

Our Department engages the public through many means. We facilitate numerous block watches and also communicate to the public through our blog, Facebook and Twitter. We also publish crime data on CrimeMapping.com.

The Department has three Divisions and a 9-1-1 Command Center. Each Division is headed by a Captain, or by the Office of the Chief of Police. The Operations Division and the Criminal Investigations Division are led by Captains, while the Professional Standards Division is supervised by a Lieutenant who reports directly to the Office of Chief of Police. The 9-1-1 Center is supervised by a Director who also reports to the Chief of Police.

The Operations Division is comprised of five Platoons. Platoons One, Two and Three are led by a Lieutenant and three Sergeants. These platoons work a rotation of dayshift and middle shift. The Fourth Platoon is also led by a Lieutenant and has five sergeants to cover the steady night shift. The Special Services Platoon is led by a Lieutenant and Sergeant and is comprised of our Highway Patrol Officers, our Mounted Officers and our school resource officer.

The Criminal Investigations Division is handled by two Lieutenants who supervise the Criminal Investigative Bureau and the Special Operations Bureau. Criminal Investigations Bureau is comprised of the Forensic Services Unit, Detective Sergeant and Detectives. The Special Operations Bureau consists of three units; the Vice Unit, the Street Crimes Unit and the Bethlehem Housing Authority Unit. Each unit is led by a sergeant.

The 9-1-1 Command Center handles all emergency and non-emergency calls within the City of Bethlehem. They also monitor and operate the City’s approximately fifty surveillance cameras and this resource is used to gather real time information during ongoing incidents and relay that information to officers on the street. This instant communication between callers, dispatchers and officers has proven very successful in aiding police to solve many serious crimes.