The Detective Division was the first division created within the Raleigh Police Department.  In 1881, a local newspaper first called out the need for an experienced detective to assist the patrolmen and asked for the board of alderman to approve the addition of such a post.  Another suggestion was made in 1899, but the alderman don’t seem to have addressed it.  The first record of a city detective being sworn in, however, doesn’t occur until July of 1917, when Louis Bashford was sworn in.  He remained on the job for only two months before resigning.  Raleigh continued to have a single city detective, Thomas Crabtree, until October of 1920, when Jesse Wyatt was hired in addition.

     By 1925, the Detective Squad was composed of ten officers, with Jesse Wyatt at Captain, six Detective Sergeants, and three additional plainclothesmen.  It had grown sufficiently by 1939 to be split into a morning and an evening shift.  By 1942, the “detective squad” had become the “detective division.”  Although it would remain the Detective Division through at least 1954, by 1971, it was the “Investigative Division” and had been further divided into Crimes Against Property, Crimes Against Person, Vice and Organized Crime, Frauds and Autos, and Narcotics, each group lead by a police lieutenant.  Another reorganization in the following year lead to the Investigative Platoon, which was part of the Field Operations Division.  By the late 1990s, it had returned to division status, and was subdivided into Major Crimes, Property Crimes, Drugs and Vice, and Crimes v. Persons. 

     Today, investigations are once again conducted by the Detective Division.  It conducts follow-up investigations pertaining to crimes against persons and property, and initiates investigations involving vice, drugs, organized crime, and other criminal activity.