The Community Response Division (CRD), commanded by Lieutenant David Smith, is comprised of a sergeant and eight officers.

Three of the officers are assigned as School Resource Officers, one at the Garden City High School and one at each of the two middle schools and intermediate schools.

One officer is assigned as the Community Service Officer, and is assigned to give tours, presentations, neighborhood watch and other duties to help foster the community policing philosophy.

Two officers are certified as K-9 officers and the remaining are assigned to focus on problem solving issues relating to reducing crime.

Members of the CRD are cross-trained in many areas to include bicycle patrol, gang suppression with the Garden City/Finney County Street Gang Unit (SGU) and in Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT).

In July 1998, The Garden City Police Department started a Police Service Dog Program. This program was funded with proceeds from asset forfeiture funds and public donations.

The department has two K-9 officers, Master Patrol Officer Scott Ptacek and Master Patrol Officer Freddie Strawder. Both officers are partnered with police service dogs. Canines Ringo and Rico are Belgian Malinois. Both K-9 units graduated from the Kansas Highway Patrol K-9 Training Program and MPO Ptacek is a certified instructor who can train police service dogs and their handlers.

The SGU is comprised of officers from the CRD, patrol division, Finney County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Highway Patrol and the Finney County Attorney’s Office. The SGU has adopted the Team Approach Regarding Gang Enforcement Techniques (TARGET) which is a philosophy used to focus on suppressing gang activity.

The SWAT team is made up of two groups of officers who are trained in a variety of police tactics to include service of moderate and high-risk search warrants, hostage rescue, etc. SWAT members are officers from the Patrol and Community Response Division with primary command through CRD.