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Criminal Investigations Division
Contact: Professional Biography: Captain John Thorpe began his career with the Irving Police Department in February 1980. In 1990 he went to work for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, but decided that police work was his calling and returned to the Department June of 1994. He has been assigned to the Patrol Division, Jail Section, and Vice/Narcotics Section, and the Criminal Investigation Division. John has served as a field Training Officer, Field Training Sergeant, and Field Training Coordinator. He was selected as the 2006 Supervisor of the year. John was promoted to Captain in June 2007. Prior to his current assignment he was a Watch Commander in the South Patrol Division. The Criminal Investigation Division is divided into the following sections: 1. Major Crimes / Crimes Against Persons - 6 Detectives to investigate all Homicides, Robberies, sexual assaults, indecencies with a child, aggravated assaults, simple assaults, child abuse (except domestic violence) and all other crimes against persons. The Criminal Investigation Division also investigates Animal Cruelty cases and prepares/files charges related to them. 2. Forgeries - 3 Detectives to investigate forgeries, credit card abuses, money laundering, identity theft, embezzlements, and all white collar crimes. 3. Property Crimes - 9 Detectives investigate all residential and commercial and vehicle burglaries as well as all criminal trespasses, criminal mischief, theft and uncategorized crimes. 4. Auto Thefts - 3 Detectives investigate all auto thefts. 5. I.D. - 4 officers to process crime scenes, collect evidence, photograph evidence and assist investigators with physical evidence. 6. Pawn Shop Detail - 1 public service officer to collect pawn tickets, complete data entry information from pawn tickets, place holds on stolen property, assist detectives and other agencies with pawn shop investigations and give testimony in property hearings in Municipal Court. 7. Digital Forensics/Computer Crimes Unit - With the growth of computers and the INTERNET, digital evidence has begun to play an important role in the criminal courtroom. Computer forensics is the discovery, collection, analysis, and archiving of this evidence. The process of recovering this digital evidence has become significant in catching cyber-criminals ranging from child pornographers to cyber-scam artists. Specialized training and forensic tools now allow the examiner to recover deleted files and email. Data has also been found hidden in areas of a hard drive not recognized by the Windows or DOS operating systems. In the hands of an experienced examiner, this data can be located and collected for use. As a result of this, the Irving Police Department addressed these issues by expanding its forgery section. In 1997, consideration was given to allocating manpower and other resources to move forward in implementing a solution. In 1999, the Digital Forensics Unit of the Irving Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division was formed. It is a 2 man unit specializing in the investigation of computer forensics. A high tech computer forensics lab assists in gathering of digital evidence. This evidence can then be used to prosecute these traditional crimes as well as the new family of "cyber-crimes". 8. Gang Intervention Officers - The Irving Police Department's Gang Unit was created and operates out of the Criminal Investigators Division to deal with unique challenges of criminal street gangs in the City of Irving. The investigators are specially trained in recognizing gang activity, offense patterns and gang membership. The gang investigators are responsible for investigating all graffiti and gang related offenses. The investigators also make presentations covering all aspects of gang activity to civic, school and business groups. The purpose of the presentations is to educate the public and parents about the threat of gangs and the solutions being implemented to deal with them. |