The Patrol Division is the largest and most visible component of the Northfield Police Department. Patrol is staffed by three patrol sergeants,13 patrol officers and one community service officer.
Emergency response
Patrol staff provides emergency response 24/7/365. Patrol provides the initial response to almost every emergency call in the city including, but not limited to, medical emergencies, traffic crashes, fire calls, crimes in progress, domestic disputes, and mental health crises.
Non-emergency response
They also are first on site for a variety of non-emergency calls such as, after-the-fact crime reports, runaway reports, public assists and civil disputes.
Directed patrol
In addition to responding for calls for service, patrol officers enforce traffic laws and spend time conducting what we refer to as directed patrol. Directed patrol is focused on addressing a specific problem. It could be monitoring an area where we’ve received a high number of traffic related complaints or it could be something like patrolling a neighborhood that has experienced a high number of thefts from vehicles.
Equipment
Well-trained officers responding to calls are appropriately equipped. Each of our patrol vehicles is equipped with an automatic external defibrillator (AED), fire extinguisher, portable breath test devices, a laptop computer with printer, cameras, and many other pieces of equipment that might be needed during a shift.