| Unit Name: | Detective Bureau |
| Dates: | 1882–present[1] |
| Country: | United States |
| Agency: | New York City Police Department |
| Type: | Detective |
| Abbreviation: | DB |
| Sworn Type Label: | Officers |
| Sworn: | 6,000 |
| Current Commander: | Bureau Chief of Detectives – Joseph E. Kenny |
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. In March 2016, the Organized Crime Control Bureau (OCCB) was disbanded with all investigative entities moved to the Chief of Detectives office.[4]
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.
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:
Additional sub-units of the Special Victims Division are listed below:
A fictional version of the Special Victims Division called the Special Victims Unit appears in the television program .[5]
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:
The television program 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.
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).
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.
Overall command is the Chief of Detectives
Units within the Detective Bureau include the:
| Name | Dates in Office | |
|---|---|---|
| George P. Mitchell (detective) | 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 2018–2019 | ||
| 2019–2021 | ||
| James W. Essig | 2021–2023 | |
| Joseph E. Kenny | 2023–present |
See main article: List of fictional portrayals of the NYPD. 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, , Castle, Blue Bloods, Brooklyn Nine Nine and many others.