Police Officers

About the NYPD

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is the largest and one of the oldest municipal police departments in the United States. The NYPD was established in 1845, and today, is responsible for policing an 8.5-million-person city, by performing a wide variety of public safety, law enforcement, traffic management, counterterror, and emergency response roles. In the past 25 years, the department has achieved spectacular declines in both violent and property crime, ensuring that New York City has the lowest overall rate of major crimes in the 25 largest cities in the country.

The NYPD is divided into major bureaus for enforcement, investigations, and administration. It has 77 patrol precincts with patrol officers and detectives covering the entire city. The department also has 12 transit districts to police the subway system and its nearly six-million daily riders, and nine police service areas (PSAs) to patrol the city's public housing developments, which are home to more than 400,000 residents.

As the largest, best trained, most effective, and most technologically advanced law enforcement agency in the United States, the NYPD provides safety and peace of mind to millions of residents, workers, and visitors across the five boroughs of New York City — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Going forward, the NYPD is striving to add "most caring" and "most connected" to that list. As our mission of protecting and serving grows more complex, so does our need to add the most talented and dedicated people to our ranks. By becoming a New York City Police Officer, you will embark on fulfilling career in public service that ensures the safety and prosperity of this great city and its citizens.

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The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.