Organizational Structure

The Rapid City Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division is commanded by Captain Deb Cady is responsible for conducting continuing investigations into criminal activity. This division has the responsibility of identifying, apprehending and assisting in the prosecution of those individuals responsible for such criminal activity.

 The Criminal Investigations Division has an authorized strength of 23 sworn and 4 civilian personnel. In 2007, detectives in the Criminal Investigations Division were assigned 6,187 cases for information and investigative purposes.  The investigations resulted in the arrest of 1,406 adults and 111 juveniles for various misdemeanors and felonies.

The division is divided into two sections; Crimes Against Persons, andCrimes Against Property which are inter-connected, but each also responsible for a specific area of the criminal investigation process.

Command oversight of these two divisions is provided by Lieutenant Dave Walton.  Lieutenant Walton also supervises the School Liaison Officers and oversees juvenile investigations.

School Liaison Officers

The Department participates in the School Liaison Program jointly with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. Eight schools in the Rapid City School District have Liaison Officers.   Rapid City police officers are currently at Central High School, South Middle School, West Middle School, Southwest Middle School, and the Jefferson Academy.  The School Liaison Officers provide assistance to school administrators and parents, instruction to students, investigation of criminal activity, and deal with other police matters concerning schools and students. Our School Liaison program almost three decades ago and serves as an effective link between law enforcement, parents and educators.

The Crimes Against Persons Section

The Crimes Against Persons Section, under the direction of Sergeant Dale McCabe, is responsible for theinvestigation of all major crimes of violence committed against individuals, such as homicide, rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and abduction/kidnapping scenarios. This Section is alsoresponsible for the investigation of suicides, unattended deaths, adult missing persons and cases of telephone misuse.

 Additionally, this Section is responsible for the registration and tracking of 252 convicted sex offenders residing within the city of Rapid City and Pennington County. The Sex Offender Location Verification  program (SOLV) conducts multiplecompliance checks to ensure the sexoffender is living at the location he provided to the Compliance Officer.  The Sex Offender Location Verification program was established in July of 2002.

The Rapid City Police Department also teams up with Pennington County Sheriff’s Office in two separate key areas of criminal investigations.  Resources and personnel have been combined to form the Sexual Assault Team and the Domestic Violence Team.  Both areas of investigations require specialized skills which aid the victim throughout the criminal justice system. 

The Crimes Against Property Section

The Crimes Against Property Section, under the direction of Sergeant Peter Ragnone, investigates crimes in which the primary motive is financial gain or vandalism. These types of crimes include but are not limited to residential burglaries, business burglaries, vehicle burglaries, vehicle thefts, embezzlement, forgeries, insufficient funds checks, closed account checks, vandalism, theft, identity theft, credit card fraud, and computer crimes which include child pornography and financial investigations on the internet.

The Public Information Officer (PIO)

A component of the Criminal Investigation Division is the Public Information Officer. The PIO is responsible for informing the public and the news media about events that affect the lives of the citizens of Rapid City. The Captain of Detectives, Deb Cady, is assigned to this position. She coordinates public information and assists mass media personnel in covering routine news stories as well being available to respond to newsworthy police incidents. The PIO is responsible for preparing and distributing departmental news releases and crime reports to the news media and arranging news conferences.

License Compliance Officer

The License Compliance Investigator is a full-time civilian employee. The Inspector is responsible for performing background investigations on candidates for city employment (if required); individuals requesting city licenses; individuals or corporations doing business involving alcohol; individuals involved in security; and individuals who are pawn brokers, second hand dealers, and dealers in precious metals and gems. The License Compliance Investigator is also responsible for investigating alleged license violations and compliance checks.

Computer Crime Unit

The Rapid City Police Department started a forensic computer unit in 2003 to investigate crimes utilizing the internet and computers. The Unit is comprised of a detective from the Rapid City Police Department and an investigator from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office.   Working closely together the Computer Unit investigates computer crime in Rapid City and Pennington County.  The need for such a specialized unit was recognized and has proven to be very successful.  The computer is quickly becoming a tool of white-collar criminals as the methods they use are difficult to detect and often the criminal is unidentified by the victim.

The internet has certainly become a part of millions of people’s lives throughout the world and is rapidly increasing as a means to communicate but also commit crimes.  The Unit have identified several different methods the criminal will use the technology to their advantage.  The crimes include but are not limited to:

• Distribution of pornographic material
• Illegal copyright infringement
• Internet security fraud
• Identity theft
• Credit card fraud
• Non-delivery of items purchased by customers on the internet
• Pyramid schemes which promise quick cash after an initial investment

The Unit recently purchased a new forensic computer from the Coverdell Forensic Grant to aid them in their retrieval of digital evidence.  The Forensic Retrieval Evidence Device (FRED) computer is very powerful and is specifically designed to retrieve digital forensic information from criminal’s computers.

The Computer Crime Unit is active in preparing public speaking events, children oriented training on Keeping Internet Safe and conducting computer related investigations.

 Pawn Shops

The property crimes section is also responsible for pawnshop checks and maintains computer records of all pawnshop transactions occurring in the city.  The detective assigned to the pawn shop detail tracks the items placed into the pawn shops and compares the items reported stolen or missing from victims in the community in an effort to return the items to their owners.

 Polygraph Examiner

 A certified polygraph examiner is on staff to assist in the resolution of criminal investigations and to conduct post-conviction sex offender polygraphs.

A routine polygraph exam from start to finish takes a minimum of five hours.  Following the exam, charts have to be scored, reports have to be written and the person requesting the exam needs to be briefed.  If an individual is determined to be deceptive, the examiner will in some cases conduct the interrogation.