There are thousands upon thousands of police departments throughout the United States, all with the same goal: serving and protecting their citizens. Ranging in various sizes, they can be as small as a one man army or as big as some nations' entire militaries.
When it comes to policing a small town in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky, things are fairly straightforward. But imagine policing some of the largest cities in the world, with millions upon millions of people. As we’re sure you could imagine, this requires an extreme amount of coordination, planning, and proper execution. That’s exactly what the New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago Police Departments - the three largest city police forces in the United States - are challenged to do on a daily basis.
You’ve seen them in movies, you’ve seen them on TV, and you’ve seen them in the news. But how exactly do these three well-known police departments match up? Just how large and capable are they? What training do they receive? And what do each of them bring to the table in the world of law enforcement?
Keep reading, and we’re going to answer all of those questions for you and much more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT (NYPD)
LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT (LAPD)
CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT (CPD)
NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT (NYPD), LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT (LAPD), & CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT (CPD): OVERVIEW
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it should come as no surprise that all police departments essentially do the same thing: they maintain law and order within their respective community or jurisdiction. Whether that be a cop pulling you over for a traffic stop because you were going 60 in a 45 when you were definitely just doing 50, maintaining a presence in crowded areas, or responding to help you in a serious 911 emergency, everyone has a basic understanding of what police departments are there for and can do.
Naturally, when most people think of a cop, they think of what is known as a patrol officer. Patrol officers are the everyday, stereotypical cop - not much explanation is needed here. While they are the backbone of any police force, there is much more to law enforcement that most people aren’t aware of.
It’s when you take a closer look, you soon realize that there's a vast array of differences between how each department gets things done, what they specialize in, and what they are truly capable of.
The NYPD, LAPD, and Chicago PD each have their own unique challenges, jurisdictions, and ways of doing things
NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT (NYPD)
Established in 1845, the NYPD is not only one of the oldest police forces in the United States, but it is also the largest of them all. Just how large, exactly? 35,000 - yes, 35,000 sworn police officers. That’s larger than 70 countries’ entire militaries! Because of its size, it unfortunately comes with the territory that the NYPD has the most line of duty deaths of any other American law enforcement agency.
With so many police officers, the NYPD is responsible for policing a population of 8.5 million people in a 468 square mile region, performing a wide variety of public safety, law enforcement, traffic management, counterterror, and emergency response roles. The NYPD is divided into major bureaus that handle enforcement, investigations, and administration. To cover the whole city, there are 77 patrol precincts, which are specific areas that police officers patrol. In addition to that, because public transportation is crucial in the Big Apple, there are also 12 transit districts that police the subway system and the millions of people who use it every day.
But as we explained before, there’s much more to police departments than just their patrol officers. The NYPD is home to a multitude of highly trained and specialized units to tackle the numerous challenges it faces on a daily basis. For example, since New York City is pretty much an island, the NYPD has a lot of boats at its disposal to patrol over 500 miles of waterfront surrounding the city - 29 boats, to be exact. It also has a highly trained, elite SWAT team known as the Emergency Service Unit. Consisting of roughly 500 members, the ESU has canine teams, bomb squads, medics, trained snipers, breachers, and dive teams. The ESU also has an “A” Team, officially called the Apprehension Tactical Team, which is the full-time tactical element that operates city wide. It’s considered to have the highest operational tempo of any U.S. tactical team, performing as many as 800 to 1,000 missions a year!
There’s also detectives, intelligence, counterterrorism, housing, and a whole slew of other assets that the NYPD has at its disposal. Each is designed to contribute to the enforcement and protection of this massive city. While no NYPD officer’s career is the same, they all had to come from somewhere. That somewhere is the NYPD Academy.
Located in College Point, Queens, the NYPD Academy is a 32-acre campus operated by the NYPD Training Bureau. Depending on what you’re joining to do, you’ll be here for anywhere from 5 to 6 months, and sometimes longer, receiving training in various academic, physical, and tactical fields. Recruit and in-service training focuses on effective community policing, de-escalation, communication skills, and safe tactics. After you graduate, for the first year and a half of your career, you will be designated as a "Probationary Police Officer", and be considered a "rookie" until your probation ends. Once that’s over, you’re now a full-blown NYPD officer and will begin your work in whatever capacity they put you in.
The basic requirements to join the NYPD are to be 21 years old, to have 60 college credits or 2 years of active military service, and to be a U.S. citizen with a NY driver’s license who lives in one of the city’s five boroughs.
LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT (LAPD)
Formed in 1869, the Los Angeles Police Department is the third largest city police department in the U.S., falling only behind the NYPD and Chicago PD. With roughly 10,000 sworn officers, LAPD is responsible for policing a population of 4,000,000 in a 468 square mile region in Sunny Los Angeles, California.
Due to its size, the LAPD consists of a wide range of units and divisions that enable it to be a versatile and effective policing force. Under its Office of Operations, which is where a majority of its officers fall, there are four or five bureaus and 21 divisions, each responsible for a specific area in LA.
The LAPD Patrol officers, who make up most of the LAPD, respond to 911 calls, conduct routine patrols, and address community concerns - all things typical of a police force. But the LAPD is also home to, among others, an aviation unit, a K9 unit, emergency services, horse mounted patrols, underwater diving units, and its world famous LAPD SWAT Team - which happens to be America’s first ever SWAT team, believe it or not!
Most SWAT teams throughout the United States are part time, but LAPD SWAT is full time. While it's slotted for roughly 60 officers, they’re manned at around 40 right now due to retirements and injuries. Despite their small number, they got their work cut out for them. In a typical year, the LAPD SWAT team will have about 200 operations. These operations range from responding to high-risk situations where suspects are holding hostages, threatening suicide, or barricading themselves. They also initiate the service of high-risk warrants for all department entities, and keep control of areas that are hard to secure and could be dangerous for everyone around.
While LAPD is known for its SWAT team, we can’t stress this enough, there’s still loads more to the department, such as detectives, intelligence, gangs, narcotics, and much, much more. Similar to the NYPD, while every LAPD officer can end up going in a different career direction, they all start from the same place: the LAPD’s police academy.
Located in Elysian Park, Los Angeles, the LAPD academy is around 6 months long. During these six months, candidates will learn areas such as traffic enforcement, self-defense, police tactics, law, firearms, and tactical driving. Training is rigorous, demanding, and exhausting, but also a rewarding, life-changing experience. After the academy, you’ll still be on probation before you’re completely good to go in your career. On probation, you’ll be performing the normal duties a police officer carries out with the supervision of another officer. Once your probationary period is over, you’ll be a newly minted LAPD police officer.
The basic requirements to join the LAPD are to be 21 years old by academy graduation, have a high school diploma or GED, be legally authorized to work in the U.S., and have a history of ethical and moral behavior.
CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT (CPD)
Formed in 1835, the Chicago Police Department is one of the oldest police forces and the second largest city police department in the United States. With over 11,000 sworn officers, the Chicago Police Department is responsible for policing a population of 2.7 million in a 237 square mile region in the Windy City.
The Chicago PD is organized into large offices and bureaus. These are made up of specialized units that have specific tasks and areas they're responsible for. For example, there's the Patrol Bureau, where patrol officers play a crucial role as the foundation of the department. Then there are other important areas like the Bureau of Detectives, Counterterrorism, and Street Deputies. Overall, the Chicago PD has a well-defined structure with various units fulfilling different missions and responsibilities.
While most of the Chicago police department as a whole responds to emergency calls, conducts routine patrols, and interacts with the community, there’s some pretty cool features of the Chicago PD that separate it from the rest. One example is the Chicago PD’s Marine Operations. Marine Ops personnel are responsible for all bodies of water within Chicago, which happens to be home to the largest municipal harbor system in the United States. Each Marine Ops member is a diver who is trained in heavy weapon usage and serves as the first responder to any maritime incident. Their three main areas of responsibility are Search, Rescue, and Recovery Ops, Law Enforcement, and Homeland Security.
Their canine unit trains their dogs to handle a multitude of cool missions, like searching for hidden offenders, tracking suspects who flee the scene of a crime, and detecting drugs or explosives.
As we’re sure you know by now from the NYPD and LAPD, all Chicago Police Officers come from somewhere. Can you guess where they have to start? If you say Chicago PD Academy, you get a gold star! All jokes aside, the Chicago PD Academy is 6 months long and provides progressive and comprehensive training to develop policing skills, enhance leadership abilities, and promote a solid ethical foundation for all department members. It also gives basic peace officer training for its Chicago PD recruits, such as firearms, control tactics, physical training, gangs, drugs, ethics, report writing, vehicle stops, law enforcement driving, terrorism awareness, and building entry tactics. In total, this adds up to over 900 hours of training.
It doesn’t end there, though. After the academy, you’ll spend another 12 months on probationary status, similar to how the NYPD and LAPD do things. You’ll be assigned to one of the districts in the city, as well as to a Field Training Officer who will train, observe, and grade you for roughly three periods. Once you're done with that, you’ll be a full-fledged Chicago PD officer.
The basic requirements to join the Chicago Police Department are to be 21 years old but not 40 years old upon entry to the academy, have earned 60 credits from an accredited university, but many exceptions exist for that, and meet their basic medical and physical requirements.
NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT (NYPD), LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT (LAPD), & CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT (CPD): CONCLUSION
In total, the NYPD, LAPD, and Chicago PD are responsible for over 15 million people - but that’s just scratching the surface. There are tons of police forces and agencies throughout the country, at the federal, state, and local levels. But have you ever wondered what the differences between them are? Wonder no more, because we’ve done a blog post breaking down exactly that.
If you want to learn more about the military, law enforcement, or government entities, we have a YouTube channel dedicated to providing the best info out there, plus we have a growing list of blog posts as well. Click the links to take you to them!
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