About


MISSION STATEMENT: The mission of the Houston Police Department Robbery Division is to impact the robbery rate by providing the citizens of Houston with a prompt and effective investigation response to all classifications of robberies, theft from persons, and extortion cases.

Definitions:

Robbery: A person commits an offense if, in the course of committing theft and with the intent to obtain or maintain control of the property, he: intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another; or intentionally knowingly threatens or places another in fear of imminent bodily injury or death. An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree.

Aggravated: A person commits an offense if he commits robbery and he: causes serious bodily injury to another; uses or exhibits a deadly weapon; or causes bodily injury to another person or threatens or places another person in fear of imminent bodily injury or death, if the other person is: 65 years of age or older; or a disabled person. An offense under this section is a felony of the first degree. In this section, “disabled person” means an individual with a mental, physical, or developmental disability who is substantially unable to protect himself from harm.

Theft From Person: A person commits an offense if he unlawfully appropriates property with intent to deprive the owner of the property. A state jail felony if: regardless of value, the property is stolen from the person of another or from a human corpse or grave.

Capital Murder: A person commits an offense if the person commits murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit robbery. This is punishable by the death penalty.

The Robbery Division is responsible for conducting all follow up and some scene investigations involving robbery, aggravated robbery, extortion and theft from persons. This includes the identification, charging, apprehension and processing of suspects as well as the recovery of property and testimony in court.

The Robbery Division is operational from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week and has on call investigators that can make the scenes of the more serious robberies at any other times. Operationally, the Robbery Division is divided into 6 functional investigative units. There are 4 traditional investigative squads organized by geographic area and Violent Offenders Squad, which is responsible for investigating crimes of a more violent nature..

The Robbery Division also provides investigators to the Houston Area Bank Robbery Task Force, which investigates crimes against financial institutions.