The officers and employees of the Police Department are charged with the duties of preserving the public peace, detecting and preventing crime, arresting offenders, protecting the rights of persons and property, preserving order at elections, public meetings and public places, preventing and removing, if possible, nuisances on and in all public streets, highways, alleys, waters and other places, the enforcement of the penal code of the state and the penal provisions of this code and other ordinances of the city, and performing and discharging such other duties as are now or may hereafter be imposed upon them by the laws of the state or by the ordinances of the city.
(1998 Code, § 70-5)