The Criminal Investigation Division is responsible for investigating all felony and any serious misdemeanor offenses that occur within the city. The Division is made up of one Lieutenant, one Sergeant, two Corporals, four detectives (including two grant funded “Crimes Against Women” detectives), and one civilian secretary. Although the crime rate continues to rise, the number of officers assigned as Detectives has not changed in the last several years. This has resulted in a larger case load, which in turn has cost the city money in increased overtime hours. All the officers assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division work in plainclothes.

The Lieutenant in charge of CID is also responsible for the background investigations of all applicants for employment with the Searcy Police Department. Two members of CID are trained operators of the department’s Computer Voice Stress Analysis machine, which is used during interviews and interrogations to detect deceit, serving a similar function to a polygraph machine.

The Crimes Against Women Unit of the Criminal Investigation Division was formed as a grant funded project to better serve the sector of our community which suffers from domestic violence and related crimes, through specialized investigative work.

Officer Bobby O’Brien was promoted from the rank of Sergeant to Lieutenant, and assigned the command of the Criminal Investigation Division in March, 2004. During the same time, Officer Chad Crabill was promoted to the rank of Detective Sergeant within CID.