Expert: Philip Sweeting - 2/14/2005

Question
I am writing a homicide novel that takes place in Manhattan.  I would like to know the hierarchy among detectives, and also among uniformed policemen.  For instance, if my main character is a homicide detective with a squad of three under him, what is the most likely grade that he would be, and what would be the grade of those detectives under him?  Also, who would my main character answer to?  Would it be a Chief of Detectives or what?  Right now, I have my main detective as a lieutenant, with detectives third-grade under him.  I have him reporting to a captain of detectives.  Am I even close?  I sure hope you can help me.

Thank you so much,

Joe Perrone

Answer
Most police departments are the same but they can also be different. What you have can work but in most police departments it would be detective, detective sergeant, detective lieutenant, Captain.

In uniform it would be patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant, captain.

The NY police department is the largest police department in the country and I am not familiar with their titles. But if I know one thing about cops they like to talk about themselves. You could probably call them and they would tell you their rank structure or go to their web page and that might give you some insight. Hope this helps. Good luck