New York City Police Department Detective Bureau
| Detective Bureau | |
|---|---|
 Detective badge | |
| Active | 1882–present[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Agency | New York City Police Department |
| Type | Detective |
| Abbreviation | DB |
| Structure | |
| Officers | Approx 5,400 (2024) |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Chief of Detectives Joseph E. Kenny |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
The Detective Bureau is one of 14 bureaus within the New York City Police Department and is headed by the three-star Chief of Detectives.[2] The Detective Squad was formed in 1857 with the Detective Bureau later formed in 1882.[3][1]
The Detective Bureau's responsibilities include the prevention, detection, and investigation of crime.[2] In March 2016, the Organized Crime Control Bureau (OCCB) was disbanded with all investigative entities moved to the Detective Bureau.[4]
Units of a precinct
[edit]Borough Commands
[edit]Each of the eight Detective Boroughs oversees all the precinct squads as well as the homicide squad, gang squad, and narcotics squad located within its command. Members of the Detective Bureau work closely with their counterparts in the Patrol Bureau to provide immediate investigations of crimes. Patrol Borough Staten Island is unique among the patrol boroughs of NYPD in that it serves as both a Patrol Borough command and as a quasi-Detective Borough command. The Assistant Chief of the Staten Island Patrol Borough supervises a unit of detectives, which oversees local detective squads in that borough's four precincts.[2]
Special Victims Division
[edit]The Special Victims Division, created in 2003, oversees all the borough Special Victims Squads. The Special Victims Division is part of the Detective Bureau and primarily investigates sex crimes, including:
- Any child under 13 years of age that is the victim of any sex crime or attempted sex crime by any person.
- Any child under 11 years of age who is the victim of abuse by a parent or person legally responsible for the care of the child.
- Any victim of rape or attempted rape
- Any victim of a criminal sexual act or an attempted criminal sexual act
- Victims of aggravated sexual abuse
- Victims of sexual abuse in the first degree
Additional sub-units of the Special Victims Division are listed below:
- Sex Offenders Monitoring Unit (SOMU): Monitors all state-designated sex offenders to ensure they are in compliance.
- Special Victims Liaison Unit (SVLU): Provides educational lectures to community and advocacy groups, schools and medical institutions concerning public as well as personal safety.
- DNA tracking unit (DNATU): Tracks and coordinates all scientific evidence relating to investigations involving sexual assault.[2]
A fictional version of the Special Victims Division called the Special Victims Unit appears in the television program Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.[5]
Major Crimes
[edit]Major Crimes aka the major case squad are one of the eight squads, task forces, and teams in the Special Investigation Division – is located at One Police Plaza in Manhattan. It handles the following cases:
- Kidnappings as directed by the Chief of Detectives
- Burglary or attempted burglary of a bank or bank safe
- Bank robbery or attempted bank robbery by an unarmed perpetrator
- Burglary of a truck with contents worth more than $100,000
- Larceny of a truck with contents worth more than $100,000
- Truck hijacking
- All robberies in warehouse depots or similar locations where the object of the crime is a truck or its contents
- All commercial burglaries in which the value of the property stolen exceeds $100,000
- Murder
The television program Law & Order: Criminal Intent features a fictional version of the Major Case Squad, which spends a majority of its time on high-profile murders—an area that the real Major Case Squad does not deal with. Ultimate responsibility for any homicide case in NYC rests with the precinct detective squad concerned, but the Major Case Squad has historically played a large and important role in the investigation of any homicide of an NYC police officer.
Crime Scene Unit
[edit]The Crime Scene Unit (CSU) is a part of the NYPD Detective Bureau's Forensic Investigations Division, responsible for forensic investigations of all homicides and sexual assaults, as well as other crimes as deemed necessary by an investigating supervisor. Members of the Crime Scene Unit assist the precinct detectives in the processing of a crime scene as well as determining the proper routing of evidence between the Medical Examiner's office, the NYPD Police Lab and the NYPD Property Clerk.
The Crime Scene Unit is composed of NYPD detectives (or occasionally police officers that are awaiting their promotion to detective), not civilian technicians like crime scene units in other parts of the United States. Generally these detectives come from an Evidence Collection Team which is operated at the borough level.
The Crime Scene Unit covers all of the boroughs of New York City, but is staffed with fewer than 1% of the total number of detectives in the NYPD. These detectives are dedicated to doing what is necessary to ensure that the precinct detectives and the District Attorney have as much evidence to identify the perpetrator of the crime and convict them at trial.
The Crime Scene Unit has at its disposal many tools to process a crime scene including the materials needed to develop fingerprints, cast footwear and tire impressions, follow the trajectory of bullets fired through windows and the chemicals necessary to observe blood under special lighting conditions that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye. The unit is also trained to process a crime scene in a hazardous environment, for example following a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.
Fictional versions of the Crime Scene Unit appears frequently in many television series and movies set in New York City, most notably in a majority of the Law & Order franchise as well as in CSI: New York and Castle (TV series).
Central Robbery Division
[edit]The Central Robbery Division deploys five Borough Robbery Squads (Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island) staffed by seasoned detectives to investigate serious robbery cases. Such cases include borough and citywide robbery patterns and all home invasion robberies. This division is the lead investigative unit for all planned or anticipated robberies within New York City and has a Joint Robbery Task Force in which members work in tandem with the ATF, FBI and U.S. Marshals.
The division is led by a Deputy Chief (one star) and has two Captains as Zone Commanders. Each individual squad is staffed with a Lieutenant as the Commanding Officer and Sergeants to run teams of Detectives. Each of the detectives assigned are from vast investigative backgrounds such as Precinct Detective Squads, Narcotics, Street Crime Units, Firearm Investigative Squads and Fugitive Enforcement Squads. This well rounded expertise assists in the long term prosecution of criminals and their apprehension.
Organization
[edit]Overall command is the Detective Bureau 
- Chief of Detectives – Chief Joseph E. Kenny
- Executive Officer Detective Bureau – Assistant Chief Jason A. Savino
Units within the Detective Bureau include the:
- Detective Borough Commands
- Deputy Chief of Manhattan South Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of Manhattan North Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of Brooklyn South Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of Brooklyn North Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of Queens South Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of Queens North Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of Staten Island Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of the Bronx Detectives –
- Deputy Chief of Manhattan South Detectives –
- Central Investigation and Resource Division—Inspector
- Hostage Negotiation Team
- Homicide Analysis Unit
- Photographic Services
- Crime Stoppers Unit
- Training Unit
- Forensic Investigation Division Commander:
- Crime Scene Unit
- Police Laboratory
- DNA Liaison Unit
- Latent Print Unit
- Ballistics Unit
- Bomb Squad Commander: Lieutenant – Mark E. Torre
- Fugitive Enforcement Division Commander:
- Violent Felony Apprehension Squad
- Regional Fugitive Task Force (NYPD, USMS)
- Juvenile Crime Squad
- Warrant Section
- Special Investigation Division Commander:
- Surveillance and Apprehension Squad
- Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad
- Joint Robbery Apprehension Team
- Joint Bank Robbery Task Force
- Arson and Explosion Squad
- Hate Crimes Task Force
- Missing Persons Squad
- Major Case Squad
- Cold Case Squad
- Head of the Special Victims Division: Deputy Chief – Carlos Ortiz
- Cold Case Special Victims Squad
- Borough Special Victims Squads
- Transit Special Victims Squads
- Sex Offender Monitoring Unit
- Special Victims Liaison Team
- DNA Tracking Unit
- Central Robbery Division:
- Transit Borough Robbery Squads
- Borough Robbery Squads
- Joint Robbery Task Force (NYPD, ATF, FBI, USM)
- Surveillance Teams
- Grand Larceny Division:
- BLAST – Burglary Larceny Apprehension Surveillance Teams
- Borough Grand Larceny Squads
- Financial Crimes Task Force:
- Special Frauds Squad
- Other units
- Gun Violence Suppression Division Commander:
- Criminal Enterprise Division Commander:
- Vice Enforcement Division Commander:
- Other units
- Borough Violent Crimes Squads
- Borough Overdose Squads
- Borough Homicide Squads
- District Attorney's Squad
- Borough Gang Squads
- Narcotics Borough
List of chief detectives
[edit]| Name | Dates in Office |
|---|---|
| George P. Mitchell[6] | 1947–1949 |
| William T. Whalen | 1949–1950 |
| Conrad H. Rothengast | 1950–1951 |
| George A. Loures | 1951–1954 |
| Thomas A. Nielsen | 1954–1955 |
| James B. Leggett | 1955–1961 |
| John F. Walsh | 1961 |
| Michael E.J. Ledden | 1961–1963 |
| Lawrence J. McKearney | 1963–1964 |
| Philip J. Walsh | 1964–1966 |
| Frederick M. Lussen | 1966–1970 |
| Albert A. Seedman | 1971–1972 |
| Louis C. Cottell | 1972–1976 |
| John L. Keenan | 1977–1978 |
| James T. Sullivan | 1978–1984 |
| Richard J. Nicastro | 1984–1986 |
| Robert Colangelo | 1986–1989 |
| Joseph R. Borelli | 1989–1994 |
| Charles Reuther | 1994–1996 |
| Patrick J. Kelleher | 1996–1997 |
| William H. Allee | 1997–2003 |
| George F. Brown | 2003–2009 |
| Phil T. Pulaski | 2009–2014 |
| Robert K. Boyce | 2014–2018 |
| Dermot F. Shea | 2018–2019 |
| Rodney K. Harrison | 2019–2021 |
| James W. Essig | 2021–2023 |
| Joseph E. Kenny | 2023–present |
Popular culture
[edit]Over the years, NYPD Detectives have been fictionalized in television police procedurals such as Kojak, Barney Miller, Law & Order and five subsequent spin-offs, NYPD Blue, CSI: NY, Castle, Blue Bloods, Brooklyn Nine Nine and many others.
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "History : 'Shadows' of the Past". NYPD. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007.
- ^ a b c d "Detectives - NYPD". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
- ^ Costello, Augustine E. (1885). Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. p. 403.
- ^ Moore, Tina (9 February 2016). "NYPD shakes up Mafia investigation unit". New York Post. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series 1999– )". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
- ^ "WALLANDER SEEKS TO CREATE NEW JOB: Will Ask Funds for Chief of Detectives, With Mitchell Likely to Fill Post". New York Times. January 24, 1947.