The Mt. Vernon Police Department Patrol Division is the largest division in the department and consists of about twenty-four sworn officers.  All new officers at the police department start out as patrol officers before they are allowed to branch out and work in the other divisions of the department. 

The Patrol Division operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year and are the first responders to every call for service the City of Mt. Vernon receives through the police dispatching center. 

The division is broken down into three eight-hour work shifts covering day shift, evening shift, and the midnight shift.  Every patrol shift has three supervisors assigned to it.  The Captain of each shift is in overall command of each patrol shift. Each shift also has a Sergeant and Corporal who act as the on duty shift commander when the Captain is not available.

Each Patrol Division shift has one police K-9 unit assigned to it to assist the division in its duties when needed.  In addition, the day shift and evening shift have one traffic division officer assigned to the patrol division to handle traffic accidents and to enforce speed zones throughout the City.

The patrol division is considered the backbone of the police department and they are the most visible of all of the police departments divisions.  They are responsible for patrolling the City of Mt. Vernon, handling all calls for service, and handling the initial investigation into any crime reported to the department.  Each year the patrol division handles about 30,000 incidents ranging from traffic stops and calls for service to criminal investigations.