Captain Mark Pilkington - Section Commander
While the Major Case component of the agency's Criminal Investigations Division may garner the lion's share of 
the headlines just by the very nature of the cases they investigate, the General Assignment Section continues to be one of the busiest operational units within the Sheriff's Office. Investigators working the General Assignment beat work everything from auto thefts to white collar crimes. They are seasoned investigators and committed to their respective tasks at hand.
Auto Theft
One sergeant, a corporal, six detectives, and two investigative analyst investigated over 3,600 stolen vehicles in Orange County during 2008, a 17 percent decrease over the previous year's caseload. Like many other parts of the country late model Honda Accords and Honda Civics seem to be the vehicle of choice with juveniles being the primary culprits in the reported thefts of these cars. The squad continues to enjoy great success in identifying and closing "chop shops," nine during 2008 and discovered that many of the vehicles they recovered were in salvage yards waiting to be sold as scrap metal or recycled parts. During 2008 the squad conducted 34 salvage yard and repair shop inspections.
Auto TRAP
Prior to 2008 the agency's Auto TRAP unit focused on locating, surveiling, and tactically apprehending stolen cars throughout the county. Their expertise in locating vehicles and apprehending the scofflaws occupying them without a dangerous pursuit changed the focus of their mission. Today that expertise is used by many investigative components of the agency in all types of investigations. The unit continues to set the bar for locating and apprehending a wide variety of felony suspects while still in their vehicles. The unit is regularly called upon to assist the FBI, ATF, United States Marshal's Service, and a number of Central Florida Police Departments to reel in suspects wanted for bank robbery, carjacking, robbery, and attempted murder.
During 2008 Auto TRAP made 165 arrests, apprehended an additional 67 felony suspects for other agencies, recovered 190 stolen vehicles, and recovered 36 firearms from felony suspects.
Organized Crime Squad
This small but highly specialized squad currently consists of a sergeant, corporal, one investigative analyst, and two detectives. While their primary mission is to investigate organized criminal groups determined to be engaged in racketeering activity in multiple jurisdictions, the unit regularly provides assistance to other CID elements by providing investigative support such as surveillance and gathering intelligence on ongoing criminal activity.
During 2008 the squad targeted and apprehended several members of a burglary group that would drive stolen vehicles through the front doors of area businesses and remove the safes. The investigation into this group, believed to be responsible for as many as 40 burglaries to businesses, resulted in the arrest of three individuals for multiple burglaries and the recovery of 15 stolen safes.
Property Squads
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office Property Unit is composed of four Property Squads working out of four of the county’s six sectors and the Economic Crimes Squad. Investigators assigned to this beat are tasked with investigating residential, commercial, and vehicle burglaries that occur in the county as well as theft, criminal mischief, and dealing in stolen property cases. As you would expect, since these types of crimes are responsible for victimizing more citizens and visitors to the county, they are a very busy shop.
During 2008 property detectives received over 28,000 case reports involving property crimes. During the past year the squads averaged a 126 percent clearance rate on assigned cases that had some type of an investigative lead (including carry over cases from the previous year) and cleared 13 percent of the total cases that were reported for investigation.
Property detectives continued to work closely with the agency’s Crime Analysts to identify crime trends and problem areas and then target those areas with enforcement activities tailored to solve the specific problem. They also worked closely with the agency’s School Resource Officers and Truancy Squad to identify and monitor juvenile offenders.
The Property Squads responded to the increased criminal activity involving the thefts of copper, brass, and other valuable “scrap” metals working a number of undercover operations details in which detectives conducted sales transactions with businesses suspected in dealing in stolen metals.
Economic Crimes
The Economic Crimes Squad is responsible for investigating the crimes of identity theft, credit card fraud, check fraud, embezzlement, theft of trade secrets, real estate fraud, and various other “white collar” type crimes. Detectives assigned to the squad usually work lengthy, in depth, and meticulous investigations that often take a great deal of time to complete. One sergeant, a corporal, nine detectives, an investigative analyst, and two investigative service officers are currently assigned to the squad. They are supported by a volunteer certified public accountant and a United States Postal Inspector. During the past year the squad’s cases have ranged from multi-million dollar real estate and mortgage fraud investigations to a number of cases in which elderly persons were exploited.