Related Pages Macro Organization Chart Patrol Bureau Organization Chart Detective Bureau Organization Chart Please remember that the organization is constantly being fine-tuned to meet new challenges and seize unique opportunities. As a consequence, these charts may not reflect the current organizational structure. Any questions should be directed to the department's Research & Planning Bureau by calling 215-686-3277, 8, 9.

he Philadelphia Police Department is the fourth largest metropolitan police agency in the United States and Philadelphia’s reported crime rate has historically been among the lowest of the nation’s largest cities. The department defines its mission as: "to fight crime and the fear of crime, including terrorism, by working with our partners to enforce the laws, apprehend offenders, prevent crime from occurring, and improve the quality of life for all Philadelphians. "

Philadelphia, with approximately 6,900 uniformed police, has the fourth largest police department in the country. Philadelphia is also the fourth largest per capita among the twenty largest cities in America. Department sizes among major cities vary greatly, from Indianapolis with 1,030 to New York City with 36,800. Philadelphia’s own department has fluctuated in size over the years, from a peak of 8,500 in 1979 to just over 6,000 in the early 1990s.

The Police Department of Philadelphia, as in other cities, is a military-like organization in which each sworn officer holds a rank. Ranks begin with patrol officer and end with police commissioner. The job of managing and directing the department rests in the hands of the Commissioner, who reports directly to the city’s Managing Director and ultimately to the Mayor. The Commissioner is appointed by the Managing Director with approval by the Mayor, and has no fixed term of office (Charter Section 3-206). The Charter allows for two Deputy Police Commissioners to be appointed by the Commissioner, as well as an executive secretary. In recent years several Deputy Managing Directors have been appointed to assist the Commissioner as well. The 1998 fiscal year budget for the Philadelphia Police Department is $352 million, 14% of the city’s entire General Fund revenues.

All of the members of the Police Department, except the Commissioner and his deputies, are civil service employees. Civil service as a system was adopted in Philadelphia in 1885 to recognize the capable, not just the politically connected, in the awarding of city jobs through merit-based exams. Since that time, the system has been revamped three times, most recently in 1951, in an effort to bring it closer to its ideal. All sworn members of the force also belong to the Fraternal Order of Police, its collective bargaining unit. Police Department civilian employees (who are not sworn uniformed officers) are also protected by civil service and handle a great deal of administrative tasks for the department but are not members of the FOP.

Each of the Commissioner’s deputies is responsible for different bureaus of the operations and administration of the department. Each bureau is commanded by a chief inspector, and most officers are within the patrol bureaus, which are further subdivided into six geographical patrol divisions and twenty-three patrol districts to encompass the entire city. Patrol divisions are commanded by an inspector, and patrol districts are commanded by a captain. A patrol district is staffed by four platoons, each consisting of a lieutenant, two sergeants, and approximately forty officers.

According to the 1998 Philadelphia Five Year Financial Plan, an impressive eighty-eight percent of the uniformed police officers on the force serve in the "on-street" bureaus, which include the twenty-three patrol districts and other special patrol functions, including mounted and canine units, airport and park protection, highway and traffic patrol, the SWAT unit, the detective bureau, special investigations, community relations and civil affairs, and emergency response.

Major "off-street" functions of the Police Department include the training bureau which operates the Police Academy; the communications bureau which manages radio and 911 operations; the staff services bureau which coordinates such functions as laboratory work, evidence tracking, and the maintenance of criminal records; the internal investigations bureau which is charged with ensuring the integrity of the police force; and other bureaus and units that provide administrative functions such as human resources, information systems, and research and planning.

The Philadelphia Police Department consists of many units and specialists. To fully diagram an organization of this complexity on this web site would encompass many pages and unnecessarily bloat this site. Instead of attempting to provide the entire structure, we have decided to reduce the charts to present their most significant components. Additionally, we have focused our attention on the Operations Bureau of the department since it is most visible to the public and is the entity that the citizenry will most likely have occasion to interact with.