The patrol shift starts with roll call. This is a time when attendance is taken, inspections are conducted, short training sessions are instructed, and important events are discussed. The patrol officers interact with their supervisor to receive special instructions or become of crime trends, law updates, fugitive information and a variety of other police related tasks and information.

There are currently four patrol districts in the Corpus Christi City limits. Each district has a sub-station. Each district is divided into beats. One patrol officer is assigned a beat and the supervisor, at the grade of Lieutenant, is responsible for the shift that covers all the beats in one district.

The Corpus Christi Police have typically four shifts in a day so that shifts overlap to provide 2 officers on a beat to allow for transition for officers to end their work day. This is a system so that a beat is not left unattended while officers clock out and others clock in to work.