The City of New York Police Department, also known as the New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City as per the NYC Charter. 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. 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. Unlike in other towns and cities, it is not the fire department but the NYPD that has responsibility for emergency water rescue.
The NYPD employs more than 40,000 people, including more than 30,000 police officers as of September 2023. According to the official CompStat database, the NYPD responded to nearly 500,000 reports of crime and made more than 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's history has been colored by police brutality, corruption, and misconduct, which critics argue persists till 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.
The Municipal Police were established in 1845, replacing an old night watch system. Mayor William Havemeyer shepherded the NYPD together. The NYPD appointed its first Black officer in 1911 and the first female officer 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, the 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, the 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. Throughout the mid to late 1990s, several mergers took place which changed the landscape of policing in New York City. The New York City Transit Police and the New York City Housing Authority Police Department merged into the NYPD in 1995, becoming the Transit Bureau and Housing Bureau respectively. In 1996, the New York City Department of Transportation's Traffic Operations Bureau was merged into the NYPD, becoming the Transportation Bureau. In 1998, the New York City Department of Education's School Safety Division became part of the NYPD's Community Affairs Bureau.
In 2021, the NYPD ceased enforcement of marijuana crimes other than driving under the influence.
In 2024, the NYPD changed its motto from "Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect" to "Fighting Crime, Protecting the Public".
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, several 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 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. Before 1987, the rank was known as the chief of operations, and, before that, chief inspector. Michael LiPetri currently serves as chief of department.
Louis R. Anemone, 1995–1999 (Originally instituted weekly CompStat meetings, which started in the Chief of Patrol's office; Anemone was Chief of Patrol from 1994 to 1995; CompStat moved to the Chief of Department's office when William Bratton promoted Anemone to Chief of Department where it remains today in the Crime Control Strategies Unit office under the Chief's command.)
Joseph Esposito, 2000–2013 (Longest-serving chief of department in history)
Crime Control Strategies chiefs
Jack Maple, first person appointed as Deputy Commissioner of Operations and Crime Control Strategies (1994–1996), creator of CompStat