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In addition to Chief Jake Castellow, the Office of the Chief of Police        

is staffed with an Administrative Sergeant who serves as the
Department’s Press Information Officer, along with the
Chief's Administrative Assistant, and a Juvenile Diversion/Crime Prevention Officer. The Chief’s Administrative Assistant and Administrative Sergeant are points of contact for the community to the Chief and his office. They assist the Chief by responding to many of the inquiries and requests that he receives. As the Press Information Officer, the Administrative Sergeant will distribute press releases and handle many press interviews and other communication with the media.

The Office of the Chief of Police is responsible for overseeing the total operation of the police department and carrying out the policy and direction of the City Manager and the City Council. Some of the primary functions are social media, recruitment, training, hiring of employees, managing budget items, conducting internal reviews, and acting as a liaison with our citizens as well as with our law enforcement partners in the criminal justice system.

The Patrol Division is the largest of the divisions and has the greatest number of personnel assigned to it. This Division is currently commanded by Captain Dominic Barteau.

Besides Patrol Officers, the Division contains the K-9 Teams, School Resource Officers, Traffic Unit, Field Training Unit and the Police Reserve Unit. The Patrol Division is the most visible division of the Department and consists of the officers regularly seen in patrol cars. The Traffic Unit consists of motorcycle Traffic Officers and a DUI Enforcement Officer. The K-9 Unit consists of dog/handler teams assigned to specific shifts, primarily at night but they are on an on-call basis 24 hours a day.

Patrol Officers are assigned geographical areas known as sectors, of which we have four. This assignment to a specific sector is for an entire deployment period of twelve months which allows the Officer to become familiar with addresses and community problems, while allowing residents of the sector to become more familiar with the Officer as well. There are four Officers assigned to each sector, one on each shift, allowing for 24 hour coverage. There is a Sergeant assigned to each sector as well. 

The Investigations/Services Division is made up of our three Detective Units as well as our Records and Communications Units, Property/Evidence Unit, and Animal Control Unit. This division is currently commanded by Captain Josh Maniss.

The three Detective Units are the Special Investigations Unit, the General Investigations Unit and the Narcotics Investigations Unit. The Special Investigations Unit focuses primarily on gang activity, motor vehicle theft and Post Release Community Supervision Probationers. The General Investigations Unit investigates all other felony crimes within the city. The Narcotics Investigations Unit focuses their efforts on the use, sale and manufacture of narcotics.  Each unit is comprised of a team of a Sergeant and up to four Detectives.

The Records Unit is responsible for the custodianship of all departmental records. Incident reports, collision reports, citations and arrest booking reports are all processed by the Records Unit.  In addition to maintaining the Department's records, this unit provides other services to the community such as fingerprinting and completing requests for crime reports.

The Porterville Police Communications Center operates 24-hours a day, 365-days a year.  In addition to daily business calls, all 9-1-1 calls made within the city are received at the communications center. Police dispatchers are responsible for dispatching police, fire, paramedics, and other community service units such as animal control.

The Animal Control Unit is made up of a supervisor, four full-time employees, four part-time employee and multiple volunteers that assist with the day to day operations. This unit maintains the City Of Porterville’s Animal Shelter, as well as responding on a daily basis to all animal related calls for service.