Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office: Patrol Divisions

The Sheriff's Patrol Division is the backbone of the office. With approximately 1340 square miles to patrol in the second largest county in Alabama, this is no small task. A few other facts:

Tuscaloosa County has the most road mileage in the state.
Patrol had 28,288 calls for service and 7,479 reports written in 2008. The office recorded approximately 5,000 calls for service in 1990.
There were 989,288 miles patrolled in 2008.
There were 12,420 warrants checked and 6,151 warrants served.
Domestic Violence and alarm calls are the most common patrol calls.
A specific court transport unit handles the needs of the District and Circuit courts as officers of those courts.
The office is capable of land, water and air patrol and is prepared for natural disasters and inclimate weather via response planning.

The office operates an assigned vehicle program. This program allows vehicles to be assigned to individual deputies and permits quick responses to emergencies from their residences. This program has also proven cost effective as the per unit maintenance cost have been reduced due to better care. The fleet includes over 80 marked units.

This division performs many functions. The foremost is to protect and serve the citizens of Tuscaloosa County. These responsibilities include the enforcement of all state and federal laws involving criminal offenses. The Patrol Division is composed of four patrol sectors that features an enhanced resident deputy program supervised by Capt. Byron Waid. The Sheriff's Office also has a sub station located inside Buddy's Foodmart, Hwy 69 S. in the Hulls Community.

Pictured below is one of the Mercedes-Benz R-Class patrol units. The department operates several of these units in a partnership with the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It is one of the many different types of vehicles used by the Sheriff's Office Patrol Division.

Selected Traffic Enforcement is also a responsibility of the Patrol Division. This program is specifically designed to help curtail traffic related offenses. This unit is equipped with two Honda Goldwings and two Kawasaki KZ1000 motorcycles. If you have a traffic complaint in the county, you may e-mail Capt. Byron Waid .

Deputies work 12 hour shifts which run from 7 to 7. Each shift has an "A" and "B" rotation with a Sergeant and Lieutenant over each rotation. The Patrol Division is supervised by Capt. Byron Waid who is the Patrol Division Commander.