Criminal Investigation Section

Investigations

The Criminal Investigation Section (CIS) Investigators are comprised of 1 Sergeant and 4 Corporal/Detectives. They are responsible for investigating all major crimes within West Vancouver.  Major crimes are those incidents that are either extremely serious or complex in nature and include, but are not limited to, the following:
 
  1. Homicides or Suspicious Sudden Deaths
  2. Sexual Assaults
  3. Robberies
  4. Aggravated Assaults
  5. Missing Persons
  6. Financial Offences, including Frauds and Forgeries
 
These investigations often last for months, depending on the nature of the offence. Occasionally, there are those rare investigations that last for years and remain active to this day. The CIS Investigators are very adept in the areas of interviewing both suspects and victims as well as completing complicated Search Warrant informations.  
 
The CIS Investigators are also responsible for completing background investigations and polygraph examinations on all police and civilian applicants.

 

Intelligence Section

The Intelligence Section supports law enforcement officers within the West Vancouver Police Department and other agencies.  Core responsibilities include information gathering/dissemination, source handling/management, and identification of crime trends and those suspects responsible for those trends.  All law enforcement officers act as intelligence officers in their daily routines, be it through interrogations of suspects or interviews of witnesses.  The Department uses the COMPSTAT approach to dealing with crime, namely the four steps; Accurate and Timely Intelligence, Rapid Deployment, Effective Tactics and Relentless Follow-up & Assessment.  To this end, the Department provides operational Intelligence to combat emerging criminal activity in certain areas. 
 
The Intelligence Officer also serves on many national programs like that of the CTIO-Counter Terrorism Information Officer. Counter Terrorism refers to the practices, tactics, techniques and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and other groups adopt in order to prevent or mitigate specific terrorist acts. Core responsibilities include:
 
  1. Serve as point of contact for the RCMP "E" Division National Security
  2. Receive and share information in matters related to terrorism with their office
  3. Receive information that originates from within their office, regarding suspicious activity that may be related to terrorism, and forward this information to the RCMP "E" Division National Security through the Community Outreach Program
  4. Serve as their office point of contact for community and private sector relationships in matters related to terrorism
  5. Conduct, coordinate and/or assist within their office with training in topics related to terrorism
  6. Conduct, coordinate and/or facilitate community meetings and information sharing
 
The West Vancouver Police Department also participates in the National Sex Offender Registry. The core responsibility of the program is to “enhance public safety by assisting in the investigation of crimes of a sexual nature and identifying possible suspects known to reside near to the offence site." An officer is able to request a search for registered sex offenders living in the area.
 

Target Team

The Target Team is a plainclothes unit tasked with the responsibility to investigate serial crimes and crimes associated to repeat offenders.  There are a wide range of crime types investigated by the Target Team, including:

  • Robbery
  • Break and Enter
  • Major Theft groups
  • Major Fraud groups
  • Drug Offences / Marijuana Grow Operations
  • Sexual Predators

The Target Team is also available to assist other units with ongoing investigations.  This can include assisting detectives in the Criminal Investigation Section with a variety of tasks including murder investigations, canvassing, and DNA collection. The Target Team also provides training to regular members in regards to identifying potential marijuana grow operations, searching vehicles for controlled drugs, as well as plainclothes operations.