Criminal Investigations Division

Division Commander: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  
Assistant Division Commander: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sergeant: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone:  269-337-8139

The Criminal Investigation Division (CID) is committed to the prevention of crime, the protection of life and property, and the preservation of peace, order and safety. CID has a workforce of thirty-five employees, which includes three command officers, twenty-one detectives, one polygraph examiner, two investigative assistants, and two administrative assistants. The Forensic Crime Lab is also under the command of the CID, which includes two lab specialists and four lab technicians.

Detectives and Forensic Crime Lab personnel follow-up on criminal investigations and take proactive measures to prevent crime from occurring.  The Division has responded to on-going serial crimes by working in conjunction with the uniform divisions, as well as The Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team to combat these issues with a great deal of success. Detectives assigned to the CID specialize in major-crime investigation, crimes against children, economic fraud, cyber crimes and auto theft, as well as general crimes. In addition, 11 detectives are assigned to specific neighborhoods within the City of Kalamazoo. All detectives are required to attend organized neighborhood crime-watch meetings. One detective is currently assigned to the Michigan State Police auto theft S.C.A.R. unit. CID has been transitioning to an electronic case management system, which has resulted in a near paperless process. CID uses both digital voice recorders and digital cameras to compliment this system. The CID continues to research the latest technological advances regarding investigation methods, crime analysis, and forensics. These technological enhancements will allow us to better serve the citizens of Kalamazoo by creating a criminal intelligence database search capability as well as a "digital case file."

Major Crime Investigations

There are 4 Detectives assigned to the major crime investigations.  These Detectives have cleared 98% of the murders in recent years.  This is compared to a national clearance of approximately 60%.

Sex Crime Unit

There are 2 Detectives assigned to the Sex Crimes Unit.  This unit investigates crimes against adults and children such as rape and other sex offenses. The unit has had great success in catching and prosecuting serial rapists. These crimes are difficult to investigate and solve in many instances.

Financial Crimes Unit

There are 2 Detectives in the Financial Crimes Unit.  This unit investigates fraud/forgery crimes that are often associated with identity theft and counterfeiting.

Polygraph Examinations

There is one polygraph examiner who does polygraph examinations for our department as well as other agencies in southwest Michigan.

Administrative Assistants

The one (1) Administrative assistant is essential to the day to day operations of the Division.  She is a liaison to our customers who need to be assisted by members of the division, and are often the first contact our customers have when calling or visiting our division.  She also helps with the many thousands pieces of evidence that are essential to our cases.

Investigative Assistants

The two (2) Investigative Assistants (IAs) are non-sworn Civilian Service Officers (CSO) and continue to benefit the CID by allowing detectives more investigative time.   The IAs work very closely with the county's Witness Coordinator program to expedite the service of subpoenas, provide improved subpoena tracking, and assistance to witnesses in court proceedings.

Kalamazoo Forensic Crime Lab

The Kalamazoo  Forensic Crime Lab is an entity of the Criminal Investigations Division. It is a combined unit with the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department There are a total of six KDPS personnel assigned: (4) Mobile Lab Technicians and (2) Lab Specialists.

Some of their duties include; the processing of crime scenes, crime scene/incident photography, vehicle processing, latent print examination and comparison, trace/DNA/blood evidence collection, photo management and storage, video and photo analysis, footwear/tire examination, accident investigation, and controlled substance testing.

They maintain expertise in many areas to include blood pattern interpretation, controlled substance identification, latent fingerprint examination, latent fingerprint comparison, accident reconstruction, forensic video analysis, and forensic mapping and crime scene analysis. This expertise has allowed them to be recognized as expert witnesses from the District to Federal Court.