Divisions – Duties & Tasks

The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office is the most diverse of its kind in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Unlike the other sixty-six Sheriff’s Office’s, Allegheny County has complete police powers like any other municipality or the state police.

The Sheriff’s Office is divided into three divisions: Civil, Courts, and Investigations. In addition to those overseen by the Chief Deputy, Civilian Administration, Crime Prevention, K9 Unit, Police Academy,  Reserves Unit and Task Force Assigned-Deputies report directly to Chief Deputy John A. Kearney.       

The Civil Division, which is supervised by one Commander (Charles Rodriguez), one Lieutenant and three sergeants encompasses Evidence, Firearms, Real Estate, Transportation, Warrant Office and Writ Services. 

The Courts Division is made up of an array of different type of judicial settings, including Civil Court, Criminal Court, Family Court, Juvenile Court, Municipal Court, and Orphans Court. In addition to overseeing the courts, a Commander (Leo O’Neill) and two Lieutenants, along with eight Sergeants also oversee Prisoner Hospital Watch.

The Investigations Division is focused on the apprehension of wanted fugitives. Overseen by one Commander, the division includes three fugitive apprehension squads (two criminal and one non-support), as well as PM uniformed Deputies and Housing Warrants, who serve warrants from the Pittsburgh Municipal Courts. In addition, the Sheriff’s Office has assigned nine Deputies, supervised by a Sergeant, to several task forces across the county, including the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office (DA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Fire, Tobacco and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and US Marshals (USM). The division includes three Sergeant supervisors, in addition to the Lieutenant.