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New York City Police Department Biography & Facts

The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, municipal police departments in the United States. The NYPD is headquartered at 1 Police Plaza, located on Park Row in Lower Manhattan near City Hall. The NYPD's regulations are compiled in title 38 of the New York City Rules. The NYC Transit Police and NYC Housing Authority Police Department were fully integrated into the NYPD in 1995. Dedicated units of the NYPD include the Emergency Service Unit, K-9, harbor patrol, highway patrol, air support, bomb squad, counterterrorism, criminal intelligence, anti-organized crime, narcotics, mounted patrol, public transportation, and public housing units. The NYPD employs over 40,000 people, including more than 30,000 uniformed officers as of September 2023. According to the official CompStat database, the NYPD responded to nearly 500,000 reports of crime and made over 200,000 arrests during 2019. In 2020, it had a budget of US$6 billion. However, the NYPD's actual spending often exceeds its budget. The NYPD has a history of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct, which critics argue persists into the present day. Due to its high-profile location in New York City, the largest city and media center in the U.S., fictionalized versions of the NYPD and its officers have frequently been portrayed in novels, radio, television, motion pictures, and video games. History The Municipal Police were established in 1845, replacing an old night watch system. Mayor William Havemeyer shepherded the NYPD together. In 1857, the force was replaced by the Metropolitan Police. The NYPD appointed its first Black officer in 1911 and the first female officers in 1918. During Richard Enright's tenure as commissioner, the country's first Shomrim Society, a fraternal organization of Jewish police officers, was founded in the NYPD in 1924. At the time, NYPD had 700 Jewish officers on the force. In 1961, highly decorated NYPD officer Mario Biaggi, later a US Congressman, became the first police officer in New York State to be made a member of the National Police Officers Hall of Fame. In the mid-1980s, NYPD began to police street-level drug markets much more intensively, leading to a sharp increase in incarceration. In 1992, Mayor David Dinkins created an independent Civilian Complaint Review Board for the NYPD. In response to this, some NYPD officers violently protested and rioted. They blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, demonstrated at City Hall and shouted racial epithets. The protests were sponsored by the NYPD union. In 1994 the NYPD developed the CompStat computer system for tracking crime geographically, which is now in use by other police departments in the United States and Canada. Research is mixed on whether CompStat had an impact on crime rates. The New York City Transit Police and the New York City Housing Authority Police Department were merged into the NYPD in 1995. In 2021, the NYPD ceased enforcement of marijuana crimes other than driving under the influence. Organization and structure The department is administered and governed by the police commissioner, who is appointed by the mayor. Technically, the Commissioner serves a five-year term; as a practical matter, they serve at the mayor's pleasure. The commissioner in turn appoints the first deputy commissioner, numerous deputy commissioners and the Chief of Department (The most senior uniformed officer). By default, the commissioner and their subordinate deputies are civilians under an oath of office and are not sworn officers. However, a commissioner who comes up from the sworn ranks retains the status and statutory powers of a police officer while serving as commissioner. This affects their police pensions, and their ability to carry a firearm without a pistol permit. Some police commissioners carry a personal firearm, but they also have a full-time security detail. Commissioners and deputy commissioners are administrators who specialize in areas of great importance to the Department, such as counterterrorism, support services, public information, legal matters, intelligence, and information technology. However, as civilian administrators, deputy commissioners are prohibited from taking operational control of a police situation (the commissioner and the first deputy commissioner may take control of these situations, however). Within the rank structure, there are also designations, known as "grades", that connote differences in duties, experience, and pay. However, supervisory functions are generally reserved for the rank of sergeant and above. Office of the Chief of Department The Chief of Department serves as the senior sworn member of the NYPD. Jeffrey Maddrey, a longtime NYPD veteran, is the 43rd individual to hold the post. which prior to 1987 was known as the chief of operations and before that as chief inspector. Bureaus The department is divided into 20 bureaus, which are typically commanded by a uniformed bureau chief (such as the chief of patrol and the chief of housing) or a civilian deputy commissioner (such as the Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology). The bureaus fit under four umbrellas: Patrol, Transit & Housing, Investigative, and Administrative. Bureaus are often subdivided into smaller divisions and units. All deputy commissioners report directly to the Commissioner and bureau chiefs report to the Commissioner through the Chief of Department. Rank structure Officers graduate from the Police Academy after five and a half to six months (or sometimes more) of training in various academic, physical, and tactical fields. For the first 18 months of their careers, they are designated as "Probationary Police Officers", or more informally, "rookies". There are three career "tracks" in the NYPD: supervisory, investigative, and specialist. The supervisory track consists of nine ranks; promotion to the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, and captain are made via competitive civil service examinations. After reaching the rank of captain, promotion to the ranks of deputy inspector, inspector, deputy chief, assistant chief, (bureau) chief and chief of department is at the discretion of the police commissioner. Promotion from the rank of police officer to detective is discretionary by the police commissioner or required by law when the officer has performed eighteen months or more of investigative duty. Badges Badges in the New York City Police Department are referred to as "shields" (the traditional term), though not all badge designs are strictly shield-shaped. Some officers have used "Pottsy" badges, "dupes", or duplicate badges, as officers are punished for losing their shield by also losing up to ten days' pay. Every rank has a different badg.... Discover the New York City Police Department popular books. Find the top 100 most popular New York City Police Department books.