New York City Police Department

The Municipal Police were established in 1845, replacing an old night watch system. Mayor William Havemeyer shepherded the NYPD together.[20] In 1857, it was replaced by a metropolitan force.

In June 2004, there were about 45,000 sworn officers plus several thousand civilian employees; in June 2005, the number of officers dropped to 35,000. In December 2011 that figure increased slightly to over 36,600, helped by the graduation of a class of 1,500 from the New York City Police Academy. As of fiscal year 2018, the NYPD's current authorized uniformed strength is 38,422.[21] There are also approximately 4,500 auxiliary police officers, 5,000 school safety agents, 2,300 traffic enforcement agents, and 370 traffic enforcement supervisors currently employed by the department. The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (NYC PBA), the largest municipal police union in the United States, represents over 50,000 active and retired NYC police officers.

As of the end of 2010, 53% of the entire 34,526-member police force were white and 47% were members of minority groups.

Of 22,199 officers on patrol;

• 53% (11,717) were Black, Latino (of any race), or Asian or Asian-American
• 47% (10,482) were non-Hispanic white

Of 5,177 detectives;

• 57% (2,953) were non-Hispanic white
• 43% (2,225) were Black, Latino (of any race), or Asian or Asian-American

Of 4,639 sergeants;

• 61% (2,841) were non-Hispanic white
• 39% (1,798) were Black, Latino (of any race), or Asian or Asian-American

Of 1,742 lieutenants;

• 76% (1,323) were non-Hispanic white
• 24% (419) were Black, Latino (of any race), or Asian or Asian-American

Of 432 captains;

• 82% (356) were non-Hispanic white
• 18% (76) were Black, Latino (of any race), or Asian or Asian-American

Of 10 police chiefs, 7 were non-Hispanic white and 3 were non-white.

In 2002, non-Hispanic white accounted for 60% of members in the rank of police officer. Between 2002 and 2010, the number of minorities in top-tier positions in the force increased by about 4.5%.[22]

The NYPD has a broad array of specialized services, including the Emergency Service Unit, K9, harbor patrol, air support, bomb squad, counter-terrorism, criminal intelligence, anti-gang, anti-organized crime, narcotics, public transportation, and public housing. The NYPD Intelligence Division & Counter-Terrorism Bureau has officers stationed in eleven cities internationally.[23][24] In the 1990s the department developed a CompStat system of management which has also since been established in other cities. The NYPD has extensive crime scene investigation and laboratory resources, as well as units which assist with computer crime investigations. In 2005, the NYPD established a "Real Time Crime Center" to assist in investigations;[25] this is essentially a searchable database the pulls information from departmental records, including traffic tickets, court summonses, and previous complaints to reports,[26] as well as arrest reports.[25] The database contains databases to identify individuals based on tattoos, body marks, teeth, and skin conditions, based on police records.[25] NYPD also maintains the Domain Awareness System, a network that provides information and analytics to police, drawn from a variety of sources, including a network of 9,000 publicly and privately owned surveillance cameras, license plate readers, ShotSpotter data, NYPD databases and radiation and chemical sensors.[27]

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. Every rank has a different badge design (with the exception of "police officer" and "probationary police officer"), and upon change in rank officers receive a new badge. Lower-ranked police officers are identified by their shield numbers, and tax registry number. Lieutenants and above do not have shield numbers and are identified by tax registry number. All sworn members of the NYPD have their ID card photos taken against a red background. Civilian employees of the NYPD have their ID card photos taken against a blue background, signifying that they are not commissioned to carry a firearm. All ID cards have an expiration date.

Title	Insignia	Badge design	Badge color	Badge number	Uniform
Chief of Department		Medallion with eagle, oak leaves and star(s)	Gold, with silver star(s)	No	White shirt, dark blue peaked cap, gold hat badge
Bureau Chief Bureau Chief Chaplain † Supervising Chief Surgeon
Assistant Chief Assistant Chief Chaplain † Assistant Chief Surgeon
Deputy Chief Deputy Chief Chaplain † District Surgeon		Chaplain and Surgeon badges differ
Inspector Chaplain † Police Surgeon		Chaplain and Surgeon badges differ	Gold
Deputy Inspector
Captain
Lieutenant
Sergeant	(sleeve)			Yes	Navy blue shirt, peaked cap, gold hat badge
Detective (grades 3rd–1st)	None
Police Officer			Silver	Yes, matching hat badge	Navy blue shirt, peaked cap, silver hat badge with matching number
Probationary Police Officer
Recruit Officer				Yes	Slate grey, black garrison cap
Cadet		None

^ †: Uniform rank that has no police powers

Officers from the Emergency Service Unit

Police boat patrolling the East River

Motorcycle police officer speaks with a passerby

1 Police Plaza, NYPD HQ

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 numerous deputy commissioners. 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 supersede the chief of department, and they usually 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.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board is an all-civilian, 13-member panel tasked with investigating misconduct or lesser abuse accusations against NYPD officers, including use of excessive force, abuse of authority, discourtesy and offensive language. Complaints against officers may be filed online, by mail, by phone or in person at any NYPD station.[35] On June 8, 2020, both houses of the New York state assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, which makes it so any police officer in the state of New York who injures or kills somebody through the use of "a chokehold or similar restraint" can be charged with a class C felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.[36] New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the police reforms, which he described as "long overdue", into law on June 12, 2020.[19][36]

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, many NYPD officers refused to wear face masks (contrary to the recommendations of health experts and authorities).[37]

The NYPD is affiliated with the New York City Police Foundation and the New York City Police Museum. It also runs a Youth Police academy to provide positive interaction with police officers and to educate young people about the challenges and responsibility of police work. The department also provides a citizen Police Academy which educates the public on basic law and policing procedures.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, the NYPD has lost 930 officers in the line of duty since 1849. This figure includes officers from agencies that were later absorbed by or became a part of the modern NYPD in addition to the NYPD itself. This number also includes officers killed on and off duty by gunfire of other officers on duty. The NYPD lost 23 officers in the September 11, 2001 attacks, not including another 136 who died of illnesses related to the attacks.[38]

NYPD Chevrolet Impala of the 105th Pct, rear

The New York City Police Department vehicle fleet consists of 9,624 police cars, 11 boats, eight helicopters, and numerous other vehicles.[39] Responsibility of operation and maintenance lies with the NYPD's Support Services Bureau.

The current colors of NYPD vehicles is an all-white body with two blue stripes along each side. The word "POLICE" is printed in small text above the front wheel wells, and as "NYPD Police" above the front grille. The NYPD patch is emblazoned on both sides, either on or just forward of the front doors. The letters "NYPD" are printed in blue Rockwell Extra Bold font on the front doors, and the NYPD motto "Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect" is printed on the rear ones. The unit's shop number is printed on the rear decklid. The shop number is also printed on the rear side panels above the gas intake, along with the number of the unit's assigned precinct.

A modified paint scheme, with dark blue (or black, for some Auxiliary units) body and white stripes on the sides was used for some divisions. The text was also white. This was phased out in favor of a modified version of the regular scheme, with the word(s) "AUXILIARY", "SCHOOL SAFETY" or "TRAFFIC" on the rear quarter panels and trunk.

• Law enforcement in New York City
• New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings
• Police surveillance in New York City

• Darien, Andrew T. Becoming New York's Finest: Race, Gender, and the Integration of the NYPD, 1935–1980. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
• Miller, Wilbur R. Cops and bobbies: Police authority in New York and London, 1830–1870 (The Ohio State University Press, 1999)
• Monkkonen, Eric H. Police in Urban America, 1860–1920 (2004)
• Richardson, James F. The New York Police, Colonial Times to 1901 (Oxford University Press, 1970)
• Richardson, James F. "To Control the City: The New York Police in Historical Perspective". In Cities in American History, eds. Kenneth T. Jackson and Stanley K. Schultz (1972) pp. 3–13.
• Thale, Christopher. "The Informal World of Police Patrol: New York City in the Early Twentieth Century", Journal of Urban History (2007) 33#2 pp. 183–216.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to New York City Police Department.

• Official website
• Police Department in the Rules of the City of New York
• "New York City Police Department collected news and commentary". The New York Times.
• Google (January 17, 2015). "Map of NYC Law Enforcement Line of Duty Deaths" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
• "With the Sky Police", Popular Mechanics, January 1932 article about the NY City Police Air Force and the Keystone-Loening Commuter in service at that time, photos pp. 26–30
• NYPD Annual Reports 1912–1923 (digitized books) from the Lloyd Sealy Library on the Internet Archive
• Historical images from the NYPD Annual Reports, 1923–23 from the Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections