Organization of the New York City Police Department

As a whole, the NYPD is headed by the Police Commissioner, a civilian administrator appointed by the Mayor, with the senior sworn uniformed officer of the service titled "Chief of Department".

Each enforcement bureau is further subdivided into sections, divisions, and units, and into patrol boroughs, precincts, and detective squads.

The civilian staff is responsible for support services and departmental management, while uniformed officers investigate crimes and conduct law enforcement operations.

The bureau plans, directs, and coordinates the department's uniformed officers in law enforcement patrol operations.

They assist the police department with uniformed patrols and provide crowd and vehicular control at special events, accidents, and fire scenes.

The Emergency Service Unit is a component of the Special Operations Bureau of the New York City Police Department.

The ESU Canine Unit deploys patrol/apprehension and bloodhound dogs to perform searches for perpetrators and missing persons.

From a standing start, the unit claims it can be anywhere in the five boroughs within 15 minutes, but this has been disputed and is dependent on weather conditions and air traffic congestion.

[122] Famed US cyclist Mile-a-Minute Murphy claimed to be the first police officer able to fly a plane in the US (possibly the entire world) as of 1914 as a member of the NYPD.

[123] For underwater work, the department used to contract with private diving companies when weapons or other evidence had to be recovered from the bottom of New York's many rivers and waterways.

(The exception are some scuba-trained officers in regular patrol units who are detailed to the team temporarily during the busy summer months.

)[124] In addition to the normal duties of evidence recovery, the Scuba Team's mission has expanded since 9/11 to include a counter-terrorism role.

The District's other duties and roles include collision investigations, advanced driver and radar training for NYPD officers, field sobriety testing, dignitary and parade escorts, hazardous material and truck traffic enforcement, anti-drag racing programs, and GLA intervention in the city.

Only TEAs of Level 4 status have peace officer powers, which allows them to carry handcuffs and make warrantless arrests.

The Crime Scene Unit covers all of the boroughs of New York City but is staffed with less than 1% of the total number of detectives in the NYPD.

The Crime Scene Unit has 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.

The computer network stores facts about convicted persons, suspects, encounters, nicknames and items of seemingly trivial value whose correlation could assist in an investigation.

The computer network's control room can display real-time satellite and surveillance camera images and hosts a wireless link to police vehicles equipped to generate sketches at crime scenes and transmit them for comparison to stored data.

Unlike uniformed patrol units whose main goal is to provide a visible presence in the streets in an effort to deter crime, Anti-Crime Unit specializes in undercover operations and tries to avoid detection in an effort to spot criminals during criminal activity in order to arrest them.

Anti-Crime officers are typically tasked with finding felony suspects, such as those possessing weapons, or committing recurring crimes in the area.

If a certain crime is spiking in an area, such as burglary, Anti-Crime officers will be tasked with finding those responsible, usually through following the suspects.

However, after several police-involved shootings and notoriety for its aggressive tactics, it was disbanded and replaced by Anti-Crime units that serve the same purpose but fall under the command of the special operations sergeants, lieutenants, or captains in their respective precincts.

Because of its relationship with the NYPD, the unit has the greatest knowledge on how to assist productions, particularly with complex shooting situations, in a city that is dense with vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

Whether it conducts filming on bridges, highways, or busy intersections, the unit controls traffic to ensure that companies can get shots that may otherwise be impossible.

It also oversees staged "crime scenes" used in the filming of the city's many police-related shows, such as Law & Order and Third Watch.

Many of the police officers that originally started in the Evidence Collection Team have gone on to transfer to the Crime Scene Unit and become detectives.

The program was introduced in 1998, allowing off-duty officers to wear their uniforms while earning money in second jobs at sports venues, financial institutions and other places of business.

[138] The Ceremonial Unit is a guard of honour for special services in the program within the New York City Police Department.

[139] Pallbearers from the unit also on occasion escort the coffin of police officers who die in the line of duty at their funerals.