History of the New York City Police Department
The
In 1857, the Municipal Police were tumultuously replaced by the Metropolitan Police, which consolidated other local police departments.
Late 19th and early 20th century trends included professionalization and struggles against corruption.
19th century
Prior to the establishment of the NYPD, New York City's population of about 320,000 was served by a force consisting of 1
However, because of a lengthy dispute between the Common Council and the Mayor of New York City regarding who would appoint the officers, the law was not put into effect until the following year. Under Mayor
For the purposes of policing, the city was divided into three districts, with courts, magistrates, clerks, and station houses.
In 1857,
Unwilling to be abolished, Mayor Fernando Wood and the Municipals resisted for several months, during which time the city effectively had two police forces, the State-controlled Metropolitans, and the Municipals. The Metropolitans included 300 policemen and seven captains who left the Municipal police but was primarily made up of raw recruits with little or no training. The Municipals were controlled directly by Wood and including 800 policemen and 15 captains who stayed. The division between the forces was ethnically determined, with immigrants largely staying with the Municipals, and those of Anglo-Dutch heritage going to the Metropolitans.[7]
Chaos ensued. Criminals had a high old time. Arrested by one force, they were rescued by the other. Rival cops tussled over possession of station houses. The opera buffa climax came in mid-June when [a] Metropolitan police captain ... attempted to deliver a warrant for the mayor's arrest, only to be tossed out by a group of Municipals. Armed with a second warrant, a much larger force of Metropolitans marched against City Hall. Awaiting them were a massed body of Municipals, supplemented by a large crowd ... Together, the mayor's supporters began clubbing and punching the outnumbered Metropolitans away from the seat of government. ...The Metropolitans gained the day after the [State-controlled] Seventh Regiment came to its rescue, and the warrant was served on Wood. This setback for the mayor was followed by another: on July 2 the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state law. Wood knuckled under and disbanded the Municipals late in the afternoon of July 3, leaving the Metropolitans in possession of the field.[7]
Unfortunately, the untested Metropolitans failed to prevent rioting in the city the next day, Independence Day (July 4), and had to be rescued by the
Throughout the years, the NYPD has been involved with a number of riots in New York City. In July 1863, the
Newspapers, including The New York Times, covered numerous cases of police brutality during the latter part of the 19th century. Cases often involved officers using clubs to beat suspects and persons who were drunk or rowdy, posed a challenge to officers' authority, or refused to move along down the street. Most cases of police brutality occurred in poor immigrant neighborhoods, including Five Points, the Lower East Side, and Tenderloin.[11]
Beginning in the 1870s, politics and corruption of Tammany Hall, a political machine supported by Irish immigrants, infiltrated the NYPD, which was used as a political tool, with positions awarded by politicians to loyalists. Many officers and leaders in the police department took bribes from local businesses, overlooking things like illegal liquor sales. Police also served political purposes such as manning polling places, where they would turn a blind eye to ballot box stuffing and other acts of fraud.[11]
The
In 1895, Theodore Roosevelt became President of the NYPD Police Commission. Under his leadership, many reforms were instituted in the NYPD.
On 1 January 1898, the city expanded to include Brooklyn. The department absorbed eighteen existing police departments, requiring more modern organization and communication as it now protected 320 square miles and over three million residents.[14]
20th century
Around the turn of the century, the NYPD began to professionalize under leadership of then President of the Police Commission,
In 1911, the department hired Samuel (Jesse) Battle as its first black officer. He went on to become the first black sergeant and lieutenant and retired after a thirty-year career.[16]
In the 1910s, the NYPD began to deploy female matrons, who had entered precincts at the close of the previous century, to conduct undercover investigations. Their duties included investigating irregular medical practitioners, confidence tricksters, fortune tellers, abortion providers, and LGBTQ people. In October 1916, Margaret Whitehurst assigned to detective work in Brooklyn led an undercover investigation[17] of Margaret Sanger's Brownsville birth control clinic. Some ambitious matrons also conducted plainclothes surveillance of public spaces, such as dance halls and bars. Those formally appointed as policewomen and patrolwomen during and after the First World War continued and expanded upon these policing tasks. Notably, policewomen conducted the 1926 raid of the gay and lesbian tearoom, Eve's Hangout, in Greenwich Village and arrested its proprietor Eve Adams.[18]
In 1896 Commissioner Roosevelt authorized the purchase of a standard issued revolver for the NYPD. It was the Colt New Police Revolver in .32 Long Colt caliber. He also instituted required firearms training including pistol practice and qualification for officers. In 1907 the Colt Police Positive revolver in .38 caliber was adopted by the department. In May 1926 the NYPD adopted the .38 Special cartridge as the standard issue ammunition for the department and started issuing its officers the Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver and the Colt Official Police revolver. In 1994 the NYPD replaced the revolver as its main service weapon and adopted the 9mm semiautomatic pistol as its standard issued sidearm, replacing the .38 Special revolver. NYPD officers who were "on the job" on or prior to 1994 could continue to carry their revolvers if they wished. The .38 Special can still be found as a backup or off duty weapon, particularly with long serving personnel. Also, the uniforms of NYPD patrollers were changed in 1995 back from the two-tone sky blue shirt and navy blue pants introduced in 1972 to one-tone navy blue shirts and pants.
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.[19][20][21]
In 1970, the
The economic downturn of the 1970s led to some extremely difficult times for the city. The
This was followed by the
In 1992, Mayor
That same year, Dinkins introduced a bill to create an independent Civilian Complaint Review Board. In response to this, NYPD officers violently protested,[25][26] and rioted.[27] They blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, demonstrated at City Hall and shouted racial epithets.[25][27] The protests were sponsored by the NYPD union.[25] Approximately 4000 NYPD officers took part in the violent protests.[27] Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly sanctioned 42 of them.[28]
In the mid-1990s, under Mayor
21st century
During the 2001 September 11 attacks, 23 NYPD officers were killed when the World Trade Center collapsed due to terrorist attacks. More lives were lost that year than in any other year in the department's history.[citation needed] The NYPD Counter-Terrorism Bureau was founded in 2002 as a result of the tragedy and the threats to attack the city that followed.
On June 4, 2014, the NYPD made the largest gang bust in New York history, arresting 103 individuals of gangs at the Manhattanville Houses and Grant Houses with extensive help from the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.[29][30] 95 of the 103 people arrested charged took plea deals.[31] Since the raid, shootings have declined 34 percent but neighborhood residents and gang policing experts feel that the sweep didn't reduce gang crime or gang affiliation and anticipate more violence, citing historic tensions between the developments and institutionalized racism as motivations behind the bust.[31][32]
On July 17, 2014,
In 2014, two highly publicized attacks were committed against the NYPD. In the first, on October 23, two NYPD officers were injured, one critically, in a hatchet attack, but both officers survived their injuries.[37][38] In the second, in December, two NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot to death in an ambush in Brooklyn.[39] In both cases, the perpetrators later died – in the hatchet attack, the suspect was killed by police, while in the gunfire attack, the suspect killed himself in the subway while being pursued by police.
In response to the shooting of Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, the NYPD responded with a city-wide slowdown of policing in December. While the arrest rate for major crimes remained constant, the arrest rates for non-violent crimes and narcotics crimes dropped during the slowdown. The slowdown stopped in mid-January 2015.[40]
In 2015 the
On June 20, 2016, three officers were arrested as part of a federal corruption investigation.[42]
In 2021, the NYPD ended the department's longstanding law enforcement of previous marijuana crimes other than driving under the influence.[43]
Women in the New York City Police Department
In 1845, the New York City Police Department hired its first female jail matrons. Women's reform groups including the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Women's Prison Association of New York campaigned to introduce women to police precincts in the hopes of improving the treatment of women detained there. Legislation was enacted to appoint female police matrons in 1888, and the first four were hired in 1891. Matrons were responsible for the care of the station house and the women and children held there. They tended to be working-class women and many were widows with a family connection to policing.[44] In 1895, the first woman to work at Police Headquarters, Minnie Gertrude Kelly, was appointed Secretary to the Police Board. In the 1900s and 1910s, some matrons were assigned to detective squads to conduct investigative work. Although they often officially retained the "matron" rank and salary, contemporary newspapers and court records frequently referred to them as "policewomen", "police officers", and "detectives". In 1912, Isabella Goodwin officially earned the title of first grade detective, the first woman in the U.S. to hold that rank.
In 1918, the first female Deputy Commissioner, Ellen O'Grady, was appointed, and in August of that year the first group of policewomen in the NYPD were appointed (there were six).[45] In 1919, the NYPD recruited Cora Parchment, the first African American woman in the NYPD and shortly after appointed Lawon Bruce, the second Black woman in the department. In 1921, the Women's Police Precinct was formed with 20 patrolwomen assigned; Mary Hamilton was assigned as director, however it closed shortly after in 1923.[46]
November 13, 1923, Governor Walker appointed Sylvia Daly Connell, a widow with two children, the first woman Deputy Sheriff in New York State. She was assigned to Richmond County.
In 1924, the New York Police Department's Women Bureau was created. In 1926 Mary A. Sullivan was appointed to head the bureau,[47] she would hold this position for twenty years.[48]
In 1934, female officers began to have pistol practice with male officers. In 1938, the first civil service exam for the title "Policewoman" was given. About 5,000 women took the exam, with 300 passing it.[49] In 1942, there began a requirement of a college degree for female officers. In 1958, women and men began to train together at the Police Academy. In 1961, Felicia Shpritzer of the NYPD sued to allow women the right to take the sergeant's exam.[50] As a result of this lawsuit, 126 policewomen took the sergeant's exam for the first time in 1964. Shpritzer and another policewoman, Gertrude Schimmel, became the first female sergeants and after suing again, the duo became the first female lieutenants in 1967. Schimmel went on to become the first female police captain in 1971 and the first female deputy inspector in 1972.
In 1970, the first woman was allowed to take the test for Police Administrative Aides, and the first women were hired from the Police Administrative List. Also in that year, Police Commissioner Murphy assigned the first group of women to patrol. In 1973, the Bureau of Policewomen was abolished, and the first gender-neutral civil service exam for police officers was held. Also in that year, "Policewomen" and "Patrolmen" were officially renamed "Police Officers".
In 1974, Gertrude Schimmel was appointed as the first female Inspector. In 1976, Captain Vittoria Renzullo was appointed as the first Precinct Commander. In 1977, the first women were assigned to the Homicide Unit (there were nine of them). In 1978, Gertrude Schimmel was appointed as the first female Deputy Chief. Also in that year, the Department entered into an agreement to increase the number of female detectives.
In 1981, Suzanne Medicis became the first woman to receive the Combat Cross, and Sharon Fields and Tanya Braithwaite became the first women to receive the NYPD's Medal of Honor. In 1984, Irma Lozada became the first female police officer killed in the line of duty. Also in 1984, Mary Bembry became the first woman shot in the line of duty.
In 1985, the first Women in Policing Conference was held. In 1987, Paula Berlinerman and Joan Clark were appointed as the first civilian women Civil Service Managers. In 1988, Mary Lowery became the first female police officer assigned to the Aviation Unit.
In 1991, for the first time, the majority of the deputy commissioners were female. In 1992, Deputy Inspector Kathy Ryan was appointed as the first female Commanding Officer of the Mounted Unit. In 1994, Joyce A. Stephen became the first African-American female captain, and an Action Plan on Women's Concerns was prepared and submitted to the Police Commissioner. In 1995, Gertrude LaForgia was appointed as the first female Assistant Chief Borough Commander.[49][51]
In 2021, Mayor Elect Eric Adams announced that Keechant Sewell would become the First Female Commissioner of the New York Police Department, as well as the 3rd Black Commissioner. On January 1, 2022, Sewell was sworn in as Commissioner. She was criticized for accepting the position in front of a mural depicting Assata Shakur, a fugitive convicted in the 1974 murder of a New Jersey State Police officer who is heavily reviled by the law enforcement community.
See also
- Samuel J. Battle
- Charles Becker
- Thomas F. Byrnes
- Charles H. Cochrane
- Knapp Commission
- New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct
- New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board
- New York City Housing Authority Police Department
- New York City Police Commissioner
- New York City Police Department Highway Patrol
- New York City Police Department Auxiliary Police
- New York City Police Department School Safety
- New York City Police Department Cadet Corps
- New York City Police Foundation
- New York City Sheriff's Office
- New York City Transit Police
- New York State Police
- NYPD Rodman's Neck Firing Range
- Police memorabilia collecting
- Real time crime center
- List of law enforcement agencies in New York
- Police corruption
- Frank Serpico
References
Footnotes
- ^ ISBN 0-8147-5186-5.
- ^ Laws of the State of New York, Passed at the Sixty-Seventh Session of the Legislature, Begun and Held in the City of Albany, The Second Day of January, 1844, Chapter 315, Article III, § 1. Albany, N.Y.: William and A. Gould and Co. 1844. p. 472. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ Randolph, Lewis Hamersly. Biographical Sketches of Distinguished Officers of the Army and Navy, pp. 82–88. Henry E. Huntington Library: New York, 1905.
- ^ By-Laws and Ordinances of the Mayor, Alderman, and Commonalty of the City of New York – Revised A.D. 1845. New York, N.Y.: John S. Voorhies. 1845. pp. 545–546. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ New York, N. Y. (1845). By-Laws ... pp. 547–550. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ISBN 978-3-515-09933-2
- ^ ISBN 0-195-11634-8. pp. 838-841.
- ^ Fosdick, Raymond (1920). American Police Systems. The Century Co. p. 82.
- ^ Schouler, James (1899). History of the United States of America, Under the Constitution. Dodd, Mead & Company. p. 418.
- ISBN 9780801427541.
- ^ a b Johnson, Marilynn S. (2004). Street Justice: A History of Political Violence in New York City. Beacon Press. pp. 12–41.
- ^ Johnson, Marilynn S. (2003). Street Justice: A History of Political Violence in New York City. Beacon Press. pp. 50–56.
- ISBN 978-1-57588-211-6.
- ^ The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin, Elizabeth Mitchell, Byliner Originals, 2011
- ^ NYPD. The Police Flag. Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
- ^ Brown, Arthur (28 June 2015). "BOOK EXCERPT: First African-American to join NYPD suffered the silent hatred of his fellow officers". New York Daily News. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
- ^ https://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/articles/sanger_on_trial.php
- ISSN 2515-0456.
- ^ "Biographies of Witnesses, Foreign Assistance for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; Hearing and Markup Before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Its Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 4329", March 5 and 6, 1986, Vol. 4, United States Congress House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 1986.
- ^ "Biaggi, Mario (1917-2015)". Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress.
- ^ "Mario Biaggi, congressman under the gun". UPI. June 3, 1987.
- ISBN 978-0-231-15354-6– via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 0-465-04195-7.
- ^ "'The Big City Rogue Cop as Monster' May 23, 2004 page 20". Archived from the original (*.Doc; need Microsoft Word to open and read) on March 23, 2012. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Shielded from Justice: New York: Civilian Complaint Review Board". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ^ "Police Unions Haven't Only Battled Bill de Blasio's City Hall". Observer. 2014-12-22. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ^ a b c Oliver, Pamela (18 July 2020). "When the NYPD Rioted – Race, Politics, Justice". Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
- ^ "Largest Gang Bust In NYC History Result Of "Extreme Collaboration" Between NYPD & DA". Gothamist. 2014-06-05. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
- ^ a b "How Massive Gang Sweeps Make Growing Up In The Projects A Crime". Gothamist. 2016-10-24. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
- ^ Kramer, Abigail (2 March 2015). "Busts, but not a solution, from NYPD tracking of housing feuds". Politico PRO. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
- ^ Janos, Adam; MacMillan, Thomas; Jackson, Joe (5 December 2014). "300 Arrests After 2 Days of Eric Garner Protests, More Demonstrations Planned". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Freiman, Jordan (June 8, 2020). "New York lawmakers pass anti-chokehold bill named for Eric Garner". CBS News. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
- ^ "N.Y. Gov. Cuomo Signs Sweeping Police Reforms Into Law, Says They're 'Long Overdue'". WLNY-TV; CBS New York. June 12, 2020. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Prokupecz, Shimon; Conlon, Kevin (October 24, 2014). "NYPD: Hatchet attack an act of terror". CNN.
- ^ Kearney, Laila (October 24, 2014). "NYC police say hatchet attack by Islam convert was terrorism". Reuters.
- ^ 2 NYPD officers assassinated. CNN. December 20, 2014.
- ^ O'Grady, Cathleen (26 September 2017). "NYC cops did a work stop, yet crime dropped". ars Technica. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- New York Police Department. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "Marijuana Enforcement". New York Police Department. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Aldrich-Moodie, Mary Jane (2002). Staking Out Their Domain: Women in the New York City Police Department, 1890-1935 (PhD Thesis ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
- ^ Annual Report. New York Police Department. 1918. p. 85.
- JSTOR 23183430. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
- ^ "Detective Ranks Opened to Women - Mary A. Sullivan, First to Gain Lieutenancy, Began as Matron, Performed Dangerous Missions, Heads 75 Policewomen". The New York Times. October 24, 1926. p. 13. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
- ^ "35 YEARS ON FORCE, WOMAN TO RETIRE". The New York Times. April 3, 1946. p. 26. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
- ^ a b Gentilviso, Richard. "Pizzuti Is New PBQN Commander". Qgazette.com. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
- ^ "Felicia Shpritzer, Nypd Pioneer, Dead At Age 87". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on 2011-08-15.
- ^ http://www.nypdpea.com/MileStone.html [dead link]
Bibliography
- Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld (1928)
- Astor, Gerald. The New York cops: an informal history (1971).
- Berman, Jay Stuart. Police administration and progressive reform: Theodore Roosevelt as police commissioner of New York (Greenwood Press, 1987)
- Chin, Gabriel Jackson, ed. New York City Police Corruption Investigation Commissions, 1894-1994 (WS Hein, 1997)
- Darien, Andrew T. Becoming New York's Finest: Race, Gender, and the Integration of the NYPD, 1935-1980. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
- Jeffers, Harry Paul. Commissioner Roosevelt: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt and the New York City Police, 1895-1897 (Wiley, 1994)
- Maguire, Brendan. "The Police in the 1800s: A Three City Analysis." Journal of Crime and Justice (1990) 13#1 pp: 103–132.
- 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. "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.
- Richardson, James F. The New York Police, Colonial Times to 1901 (Oxford University Press, 1970)
- 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.
Older sources
- Murder of NYPD officer John Smedick July23,1868
- Byrnes, Thomas Professional Criminals of America Vol 3 1886
- Costello, Augustine E. "Our Police Protectors History of the New York Police from the earliest Period to the Present Time" 1885
- Walling, George Washington "Recollections of a New York Chief of Police" 1887
- The Draft Riots in New York--The Metropolitan Police their Services during the week
- Historical images from the NYPD Annual Reports, 1912-23 in the Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections
- NYPD Annual Reports, 1912-23 (digitized books) from Lloyd Sealy Library on Internet Archive