Commanded by Deputy Chief James Ferraris, the Investigations Division delivers timely high quality investigative services for most felony crimes, gang related incidents, drug investigations, incidents involving schools and juveniles, neighborhood livability issues, crime prevention and volunteers, and neighborhood drug activity complaints.  It consists of the Criminal Investigations Section, the Special Operations Section and the Community Response Section. 

Commanded by a lieutenant, the Criminal Investigations Section is comprised of three units; the Crimes Against Persons Unit, the Crimes Against Property Unit, and the Crime Lab Unit. Supervised by a sergeant, the Crimes Against Persons Unit conducts follow-up investigations pertaining to violent persons crimes that include homicide, robbery, sex crimes, and assaults.  Detectives partner with different groups to improve the livability in Salem.  Supervised by a sergeant, the Crimes Against Property Unit conducts follow-up investigations pertaining to property-related felonies such as burglary, theft, auto theft, identity theft, fraud and arson.  Staffed by civilian personnel, the Crime Lab Unit is responsible for the examination and processing of items of evidence.

The Special Operations Unit is commanded by a lieutenant who is responsible for the Civil Investigations Team.  This unit is comprised of the DEA Task Force, Gang Response Team, Graffiti Abatement Team, and the Youth Services Unit.  Supervised by a sergeant, the DEA Task Force interrupts the interstate trafficking of illegal drugs by conducting mid and upper level drug trafficking investigations as part of their multi-agency team of city, county, state and federal law enforcement.  Supervised by a sergeant, the Gang Response Team proactively reduces street gang activity in Salem by recognizing gang activity, identifying gang members and facilitating the provision of services to at-risk youth and their families.  Graffiti Abatement is staffed by one civilian employee with assistance from part-time and volunteer personnel.  This program enhances the neighborhood education and neighborhood safety and appearance through identification, analysis and removal of graffiti, providing a sense of security individuals gain from a graffiti-free community.  Supervised by a sergeant, the Youth Services Unit is a partnership with the Salem-Keizer School District to provide a law enforcement presence in the schools to prevent and/or investigate school-related crimes and provide a sense of safety in the schools.

Commanded by a lieutenant, the Community Response Section is comprised of Street Crimes Unit, the Drug Activity Response Team, the Crime Prevention Unit and the Volunteer Section.  Supervised by a sergeant, the Street Crimes Unit reduces drug-related crime and street level drug and vice activity through targeted investigations focusing on nuisance and drug properties impacting neighborhood livability.  Supervised by a sergeant, the Drug Activity Response Team conducts investigations of citizen generated drug activity complaints with priority response given to reports involving the presence of children who are in danger due to living conditions, neglect, and exposure to harmful drugs and chemicals.  The Crime Prevention Unit is supervised by a sergeant.  The unit seeks to reduce incidents of crime in Salem through community education and long-term solutions such as Neighborhood Watch, National Night Out, Security Surveys, Illegal Transient Camp sweeps in parks, the Citizen's Police Academy, Platicas con la Policia and Crime Prevention Councils.  The Volunteer Section is staffed by one civilian employee.  The unit enhances community safety by training and supporting volunteers to supplement police services and free up officers to be on the street as opposed to performing administrative and support duties.  The unit support over 125 volunteers who contribute over 11,000 hours through programs such as Radar Reader Board, Citizen Patrol, Disabled Parking Enforcement, Pawn Slip Processing, Squad Car Maintenance and other clerical tasks. 

The Investigations Division has 65.5 FTE:  One Deputy Chief, three Lieutenants, six Sergeants, three Corporals, forty four Officers, one Management Analyst I, two Administrative Analyst I's, two Lab Technicians, one Records Technician, two Office Assistant II's, and one half time Office Assistant I.