The former New York City Police Headquarters at 300 Mulberry Street (and 301 Mott Street), mid-block between Houston Street and Bleecker Street, opened in 1863, the year of the New York City draft riots. It replaced the headquarters at the corner of Broome Street and Elm Street. Sources:
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) had it origins in the city government of New York trying to find a better way to control the rising crime rate in early-mid 19th century New York City. This crime rate had been brought on by the massive population growth, caused primarily by poor Irish immigrants from Ireland beginning in the 1820s. The City implemented the London, England policing model of a full-time professional police force in 1845, with the establishment of the Municipal Police, replacing the inadequate, out of date night watch system which had been in place since the 17th century with the founding of the Dutch colonial city of New Amsterdam. In 1857, the Municipal Police were tumultuously replaced by a Metropolitan Police, which consolidated other local police departments. Late 19th and early 20th century trends included professionalization and struggles against corruption.
19th century
One of the first major tests of the effectiveness of the newly formed New York City Metropolitan Police in 1845 was the Astor Place Riot of 1849. Note: The city policemen wore a badge but were not required to wear full regulation uniforms until 1854.
The new regulation uniforms of the New York City Municipal Police in 1854
New York City Municipal and Metropolitan policemen fight each other in front of the New York City Hall for control over the police force in the New York City Police Riot of 1857. The newly formed New York City Metropolitan Police replaced the former Municipal Police in 1857.
New York City Metropolitan Police attacking American Civil War draft rioters during the New York City Draft Riots of 1863
The regulation uniforms of the New York City Metropolitan Police in 1871
1871 map of New York City Police Department (NYPD) wards and police precincts
A print from 1873 dedicated to the New York Municipal Police: "Our Police. Faithful unto Death"
New York City Police Department mounted policeman striking unarmed civilians with batons during the Tompkins Square Riot of 1874
New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt in 1895 who tried to cleanup police corruption within the New York City Police Department
Prior to the establishment of the NYPD, New York City's population of about 320,000 was served by a force consisting of one night watch, one hundred city marshals, thirty-one constables, and 51 municipal police officers.[1] On May 7, 1844, the New York State passed the Municipal Police Act, a law which authorized creation of a police force and abolished the night watch system.[1][2] At the request of the New York City Common Council, Peter Cooper drew up a proposal to create a police force of 1,200 officers. John Watts de Peyster was an early advocate of implementing military style discipline and organization to the force.[3]
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 William Havemeyer, the city finally repealed their watch system and adopted the Municipal Police Act as an ordinance on May 23, 1845,[4] creating the New York Police Department in fact rather than merely in legislative theory.
For the purposes of policing, the city was divided into three districts, with courts, magistrates, and clerks, and station houses.[1][5] The NYPD was closely modeled after the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England which used a military-like organizational structure, with rank and order. A navy blue uniform was introduced after long debate in 1853.[6]
In 1857, Republican reformers in the state capital, Albany, created a new Metropolitan police force and abolished the Municipal police,[7] as part of their effort to rein in the Democratically controlled New York City government. The Metropolitan police bill consolidated the police in New York, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Westchester County (which then included The Bronx), under a governor-appointed board of commissioners.[8]
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 7 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 nativist Bowery Boys gang when the Irish-immigrant gang the Dead Rabbits attacked the "Mets". Barricades were erected and the battle went on for hours, the worst rioting in the city since 1849. The next Sunday, peace was maintained by the State Militia, but a week later, on July 12, German-immigrants in Little Germany rioted when the Metropolitans attempted to enforce the new reform liquor laws and close down saloons. A blacksmith was killed in the skirmish, and the next day, ten thousand marched up Broadway with a banner proclaiming Opfer der Metropolitan-Polizei ("Victim of the Metropolitan Police").[7]
Further information: New York City Police Riot
Throughout the years, the NYPD has been involved with a number of riots in New York City. In July 1863, the New York State Militias were aiding Union troops in Pennsylvania, when the 1863 Draft Riots broke out. Their absence left it to the police — who were then outnumbered — to quell the riots.[9] The Tompkins Square Riot occurred on January 13, 1874 when police crushed a demonstration involving thousands of unemployed in Tompkins Square Park.[10]
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 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 Lexow Committee was established in 1894 to investigate corruption in the police department.[12] The committee made reform recommendations, including the suggestion that the police department adopt a civil service system. Corruption investigations have been a regular feature of the NYPD, including the Knapp Commission of the 1970s, and the Mollen Commission of the 1990s.[13]
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
New York City Police Department policeman protecting children from a fallen electrical wire in Brooklyn in 1908
Former New York City Police Department headquarters at Centre and Broome Streets was located here from 1909-1973
Capt. Edyth Totten and women police reserve of the New York City Police Department in 1918
New York City policemen having a confrontation with African American protesters during the Bedford–Stuyvesant riot of 1964, an extension of the Harlem Riot in Harlem, New York City
Around the turn of the century, the NYPD began to professionalize under leadership of then President of the Police Commission, Theodore Roosevelt. With innovations in science and technology, the police force were able to establish new units, such as the Bomb Squad in 1905, Motorcycle Squad in 1911, Automobile Squad in 1919, Emergency Service Unit in 1926, Aviation Unit in 1929 as well as the Radio Motor Patrol (RMP) in 1932. The department was also among the earliest to implement fingerprinting techniques and mug shots. In 1919, the department adopted its own flag.[15]
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 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.
The economic downturn of the 1970s led to some extremely difficult times for the city. The Bronx, in particular, was plagued by arson, and an atmosphere of lawlessness permeated the city.[17] Frank Serpico wrote about corruption he encountered in his time as a police officer in this era in a book, which was later turned into a movie and television series.[17] In addition, the city's financial crisis led to a hiring freeze on all city departments, including the NYPD, from 1976 to 1980.
This was followed by the crack cocaine epidemic of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which was one factor in the city's homicide rate soaring to an all-time high. By 1990, New York, a city with 7.3 million people at the time, set a record of 2,262 murders, a record that has yet to be broken by any U.S. city. Petty thefts associated with drug addiction were also increasingly common.
In 1993, Mayor David Dinkins appointed the Mollen Commission, chaired by Milton Mollen, to investigate corruption in the department. The commission found that "Today's corruption is not the corruption of Knapp Commission days. Corruption then was largely a corruption of accommodation, of criminals and police officers giving and taking bribes, buying and selling protection. Corruption was, in its essence, consensual. Today's corruption is characterized by brutality, theft, abuse of authority and active police criminality."[18]
In the mid-1990s, under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the NYPD oversaw a large reduction in crime across the city, which has been attributed to the NYPD's implementation of the CompStat program under Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, broken windows policing, as well as general demographic changes[clarification needed], and subsiding of the crack cocaine epidemic. While CompStat was a concept that is generally attributed to Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Maple when he was a police lieutenant serving in the New York City Transit Police which came to the attention of then NYC Transit Authority Police Chief Bratton, in fact it was first implemented by Captain Mario Selvagi in Far Rockaway's 101 precinct. Since Selvagi was unable to secure the cooperation of the department's MIS department, he used pin maps. Selvagi went on to become a "superchief", but was forced out by Bill Bratton. In 1995, with Bratton as the former NYC Transit Police Chief, now as Police Commissioner, the New York City Transit Police and the New York City Housing Authority Police Department are merged in with the NYPD. The enforcement and traffic control elements of the City's Department of Transportation were merged into the NYPD in 1996. In 1998 the NYC Board of Education's school safety agents were merged into the newly formed New York City Police Department School Safety Division, to improve safety in NYC public schools.
21st century
During 9-11, the temporary New York City Police Department headquarters was at 106 Liberty St; set up near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Two New York City Police Department officers at the World Trade Center site five weeks after the September 11 attacks.
New York City Police Department K-9 unit officers with a search and rescue dog at the World Trade Center site after the September 11 attacks in 2001
On September 11, 2001, 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. The NYPD Counter-Terrorism Bureau was founded in 2002 as a result of the tragedy and the threats to attack the city that followed.
In the last two weeks of 2005, two officers were shot to death by criminals using illegal weapons.
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.[19][20] In the second, in December, two NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot to death in an ambush in Brooklyn.[21] 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 after being confronted by police.
In 2015 the Strategic Response Group was formed.[22]
On June 20, 2016, three officers were arrested as part of a federal corruption investigation.[23]
Women in the New York City Police Department
In 1845, the New York City Police Department hired its first female jail matrons. Legislation was enacted to appoint female police matrons in 1888, and the first four were hired in 1891. In 1895, the first woman to work at Police Headquarters, Minnie Gertrude Kelly, was appointed Secretary to the Police Board. In 1912, Isabella Goodwin was appointed as the first female, first grade detective. In 1917, two unknown women were assigned special patrolwomen's badges.
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).[24] In 1919, the title "policewoman" was changed to "patrolwoman". In 1921, the Women's Police Precinct was formed with 20 patrolwomen assigned; Mary Hamilton was assigned as director.
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 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.[25] 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.[26] 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.[25][27]
See also
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 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
The New York City draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), known at the time as Draft Week,[3] were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of white working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racially-charged insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself.[4]
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln diverted several regiments of militia and volunteer troops after the Battle of Gettysburg to control the city. The rioters were overwhelmingly white working-class men, mostly Irish or of Irish descent, who feared free black people competing for work and resented that wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300 (equivalent to $9,157 in 2017[5]) commutation fee to hire a substitute, were spared from the draft.[6][7]
Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests turned into a race riot, with white rioters, predominantly Irish immigrants,[4] attacking black people throughout the city. The official death toll was listed at either 119 or 120 individuals. Conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool, commander of the Department of the East, said on July 16 that, "Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it."[8]
The military did not reach the city until the second day of rioting, by which time the mobs had ransacked or destroyed numerous public buildings, two Protestant churches, the homes of various abolitionists or sympathizers, many black homes, and the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was burned to the ground.[9] The area's demographics changed as a result of the riot. Many black residents left Manhattan permanently with many moving to Brooklyn. By 1865, the black population fell below 11,000 for the first time since 1820.[9]
Background
New York's economy was tied to the South; by 1822 nearly half of its exports were cotton shipments.[10] In addition, upstate textile mills processed cotton in manufacturing. New York had such strong business connections to the South that on January 7, 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood, a Democrat, called on the city's Board of Aldermen to "declare the city's independence from Albany and from Washington"; he said it "would have the whole and united support of the Southern States."[11] When the Union entered the war, New York City had many sympathizers with the South.[12]
The city was also a continuing destination of immigrants. Since the 1840s, most were from Ireland and Germany. In 1860, nearly 25 percent of the New York City population was German-born, and many did not speak English. During the 1840s and 1850s, journalists had published sensational accounts, directed at the white working class, dramatizing the "evils" of interracial socializing, relationships, and marriages. Reformers joined the effort.[9] Newspapers carried derogatory portrayals of black people and ridiculed "black aspirations for equal rights in voting, education, and employment". Pseudo-scientific lectures on phrenology were popular, although countered by doctors.[12] At the time, some areas of the city, such as Lower Manhattan, had mixed populations of residents.
The Democratic Party Tammany Hall political machine had been working to enroll immigrants as U.S. citizens so they could vote in local elections and had strongly recruited Irish, most of whom already spoke English. In March 1863, with the war continuing, Congress passed the Enrollment Act to establish a draft for the first time, as more troops were needed. In New York City and other locations, new citizens learned they were expected to register for the draft to fight for their new country. Black men were excluded from the draft as they were largely not considered citizens, and wealthier white men could pay for substitutes.[9]
New York political offices, including the mayor, were historically held by Democrats before the war, but the election of Abraham Lincoln as president had demonstrated the rise in Republican political power nationally. Newly-elected New York City Republican Mayor George Opdyke was mired in profiteering scandals in the months leading up to the riots. The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 alarmed much of the white working class in New York, who feared that freed slaves would migrate to the city and add further competition to the labor market. There had already been tensions between black and white workers since the 1850s, particularly at the docks, with free blacks and immigrants competing for low-wage jobs in the city. In March 1863, white longshoremen refused to work with black laborers and rioted, attacking 200 black men.[9]
Riots
Monday
John Alexander Kennedy, NYC police superintendent from 1860–1870
There were reports of rioting in Buffalo, New York, and certain other cities, but the first drawing of draft numbers—on July 11, 1863—occurred peaceably in Manhattan. The second drawing was held on Monday, July 13, 1863, ten days after the Union victory at Gettysburg. At 10 a.m., a furious crowd of around 500, led by the volunteer firemen of Engine Company 33 (known as the "Black Joke"), attacked the assistant Ninth District provost marshal's office, at Third Avenue and 47th Street, where the draft was taking place.[13]
The crowd threw large paving stones through windows, burst through the doors, and set the building ablaze.[14] When the fire department responded, rioters broke up their vehicles. Others killed horses that were pulling streetcars and smashed the cars. To prevent other parts of the city being notified of the riot, they cut telegraph lines.[13]
Since the New York State Militia had been sent to assist Union troops at Gettysburg, the local New York Metropolitan Police Department was the only force on hand to try to suppress the riots.[14] Police Superintendent John Kennedy arrived at the site on Monday to check on the situation. Although not in uniform, people in the mob recognized him and attacked him. Kennedy was left nearly unconscious, his face bruised and cut, his eye injured, his lips swollen, and his hand cut with a knife. He had been beaten to a mass of bruises and blood all over his body.[3]
Police drew their clubs and revolvers and charged the crowd but were overpowered.[15] The police were badly outnumbered and unable to quell the riots, but they kept the rioting out of Lower Manhattan below Union Square.[3] Immigrants and others in the "Bloody Sixth" Ward, around the South Street Seaport and Five Points areas, refrained from involvement in the rioting.[16]
Rioters attacking a building on Lexington Avenue.
The Bull's Head hotel on 44th Street, which refused to provide alcohol to the mob, was burned. The mayor's residence on Fifth Avenue, the Eighth and Fifth District police stations, and other buildings were attacked and set on fire. Other targets included the office of the New York Times. The mob was turned back at the Times office by staff manning Gatling guns, including Times founder Henry Jarvis Raymond.[17] Fire engine companies responded, but some firefighters were sympathetic to the rioters because they had also been drafted on Saturday.[15] Later in the afternoon, authorities shot and killed a man as a crowd attacked the armory at Second Avenue and 21st Street. The mob broke all the windows with paving stones ripped from the street.[13] The mob beat, tortured and/or killed numerous black people, including one man who was attacked by a crowd of 400 with clubs and paving stones, then lynched, hanged from a tree and set alight.[13]
Attack on the Tribune building
The Colored Orphan Asylum at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue, a "symbol of white charity to blacks and of black upward mobility"[9] that provided shelter for 233 children, was attacked by a mob at around 4 p.m. A mob of several thousand, including many women and children, looted the building of its food and supplies. However, the police were able to secure the orphanage for enough time to allow the orphans to escape before the building burned down.[18] Throughout the areas of rioting, mobs attacked and killed at least 120 black people and destroyed their known homes and businesses, such as James McCune Smith's pharmacy at 93 West Broadway, believed to be the first owned by a black man in the United States.[9]
Near the midtown docks, tensions brewing since the mid-1850s boiled over. As recently as March 1863, white employers had hired black longshoremen, with whom Irish men refused to work. Rioters went into the streets in search of "all the negro porters, cartmen and laborers ..." to attempt to remove all evidence of a black and interracial social life from the area near the docks. White dockworkers attacked and destroyed brothels, dance halls, boarding houses, and tenements that catered to black people. Mobs stripped the clothing off the white owners of these businesses.[9]
Tuesday
Heavy rain fell on Monday night, helping to abate the fires and sending rioters home, but the crowds returned the next day. Rioters burned down the home of Abby Gibbons, a prison reformer and the daughter of abolitionist Isaac Hopper. They also attacked white "amalgamationists", such as Ann Derrickson and Ann Martin, two white women who were married to black men, and Mary Burke, a white prostitute who catered to black men.[9][19]
Governor Horatio Seymour arrived on Tuesday and spoke at City Hall, where he attempted to assuage the crowd by proclaiming that the Conscription Act was unconstitutional. General John E. Wool, commander of the Eastern District, brought approximately 800 soldiers and Marines in from forts in New York Harbor, West Point, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He ordered the militias to return to New York.[15]
Wednesday and Thursday: order restored
The situation improved on Wednesday, when assistant provost-marshal-general Robert Nugent received word from his superior officer, Colonel James Barnet Fry, to postpone the draft. As this news appeared in newspapers, some rioters stayed home. But some of the militias began to return and used harsh measures against the remaining mobs.[15]
Order began to be restored on Thursday. The New York State Militia and some federal troops were returned to New York, including the 152nd New York Volunteers, the 26th Michigan Volunteers, the 27th Indiana Volunteers and the 7th Regiment New York State Militia from Frederick, Maryland, after a forced march. In addition, the governor sent in the 74th and 65th regiments of the New York State Militia, which had not been in federal service, and a section of the 20th Independent Battery, New York Volunteer Artillery from Fort Schuyler in Throggs Neck. The New York State Militia units were the first to arrive. By July 16, there were several thousand Federal troops in the city.[8]
A final confrontation occurred on Thursday evening near Gramercy Park. According to Adrian Cook, twelve people died on the last day of the riots in skirmishes between rioters, the police, and the Army, including one African American, two soldiers, a bystander, and two women.[20]
The New York Times reported on Thursday that Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs gang members from Baltimore, as well as "Scuykill Rangers [sic] and other rowdies of Philadelphia", had come to New York during the unrest to participate in the riots alongside the Dead Rabbits and "Mackerelvillers". The Times editorialized that "the scoundrels cannot afford to miss this golden opportunity of indulging their brutal natures, and at the same time serving their colleagues the Copperheads and secesh [secessionist] sympathizers."[21]
Aftermath
Bull's Head Hotel, depicted in 1830, was burned in the riot.
The exact death toll during the New York draft riots is unknown, but according to historian James M. McPherson, 119 or 120 people were killed; most of them were black. Violence by longshoremen against black men was especially fierce in the docks area.[9]
"West of Broadway, below Twenty-sixth, all was quiet at 9 o'clock last night. A crowd was at the corner of Seventh avenue and Twenty-seventh Street at that time. This was the scene of the hanging of a negro in the morning, and another at 6 o'clock in the evening. The body of the one hung in the morning presented a shocking appearance at the Station-House. His fingers and toes had been sliced off, and there was scarcely an inch of his flesh which was not gashed. Late in the afternoon, a negro was dragged out of his house in West Twenty-seventh street, beaten down on the sidewalk, pounded in a horrible manner, and then hanged to a tree."[22]
— Buffalo Morning Express, 1863
In all, eleven black men were hanged over five days.[23] Among the murdered blacks was the seven-year-old nephew of Bermudian First Sergeant Robert John Simmons of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, whose account of fighting in South Carolina, written on the approach to Fort Wagner July 18, 1863, was to be published in the New York Tribune on December 23, 1863 (Simmons having died in August of wounds received in the attack on Fort Wagner).
The most reliable estimates indicate at least 2,000 people were injured. Herbert Asbury, the author of the 1928 book Gangs of New York, upon which the 2002 film was based, puts the figure much higher, at 2,000 killed and 8,000 wounded,[24] a number that some dispute.[25] Total property damage was about $1–5 million ($20.3 million – $102 million, adjusted for inflation).[24][26] The city treasury later indemnified one-quarter of the amount.
Historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that the riots were "equivalent to a Confederate victory".[26] Fifty buildings, including two Protestant churches and the Colored Orphan Asylum, were burned to the ground. During the riots, landlords, fearing that the mob would destroy their buildings, drove black residents from their homes. As a result of the violence against them, hundreds of black people left New York, including physician James McCune Smith and his family, moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn or New Jersey.[9]
The white elite in New York organized to provide relief to black riot victims, helping them find new work and homes. The Union League Club and the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People provided nearly $40,000 to 2,500 victims of the riots. By 1865 the black population in the city had dropped to under 10,000, the lowest since 1820. The white working-class riots had changed the demographics of the city, and white residents exerted their control in the workplace; they became "unequivocally divided" from the black population.[9]
Colored Orphan Asylum was burned.
On August 19, the government resumed the draft in New York. It was completed within 10 days without further incident. Fewer men were drafted than had been feared by the white working class: of the 750,000 selected nationwide for conscription, only about 45,000 were sent into active duty.[27]
While the rioting mainly involved the white working class, middle and upper-class New Yorkers had split sentiments on the draft and use of federal power or martial law to enforce it. Many wealthy Democratic businessmen sought to have the draft declared unconstitutional. Tammany Democrats did not seek to have the draft declared unconstitutional, but they helped pay the commutation fees for those who were drafted.[28]
In December 1863, the Union League Club recruited more than 2,000 black soldiers, outfitted and trained them, honoring and sending men off with a parade through the city to the Hudson River docks in March 1864. A crowd of 100,000 watched the procession, which was led by police and members of the Union League Club.[9][29][30]
New York's support for Union cause continued, however grudgingly, and gradually Southern sympathies declined in the city. New York banks eventually financed the Civil War, and the state's industries were more productive than those of the entire Confederacy. By the end of the war, more than 450,000 soldiers, sailors, and militia had enlisted from New York State, which was the most populous state at the time. A total of 46,000 military men from New York State died during the war, more from disease than wounds, as was typical of most combatants.[11]
Order of battle
New York Metropolitan Police Department
See also: List of New York City Police Department officers: 1845–1865
New York Metropolitan Police Department under the command of Superintendent John A. Kennedy.
Commissioners Thomas Coxon Acton and John G. Bergen took command when Kennedy was seriously injured by a mob during the early stages of the riots.[31]
Of the NYPD Officers-there were four fatalities-1 killed and 3 died of injuries[32]
Precinct Commander Location Strength Notes
1st Precinct Captain Jacob B. Warlow 29 Broad Street 4 Sergeants, 63 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
2nd Precinct Captain Nathaniel R. Mills 49 Beekman Street 4 Sergeants, 60 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
3rd Precinct Captain James Greer 160 Chambers Street 3 Sergeants, 64 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
4th Precinct Captain James Bryan 9 Oak Street 4 Sergeants, 70 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
5th Precinct Captain Jeremiah Petty 49 Leonard Street 4 Sergeants, 61 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
6th Precinct Captain John Jourdan 9 Franklin Street 4 Sergeants, 63 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
7th Precinct Captain William Jamieson 247 Madison Street 4 Sergeants, 52 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
8th Precinct Captain Morris DeCamp 126 Wooster Street 4 Sergeants, 52 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
9th Precinct Captain Jacob L. Sebring 94 Charles Street 4 Sergeants, 51 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
10th Precinct Captain Thaddeus C. Davis Essex Market 4 Sergeants, 62 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
11th Precinct Captain John I. Mount Union Market 4 Sergeants, 56 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
12th Precinct Captain Theron R. Bennett 126th Street (near Third Avenue) 5 Sergeants, 41 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
13th Precinct Captain Thomas Steers Attorney Street (at corner of Delancey Street) 4 Sergeants, 63 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
14th Precinct Captain John J. Williamson 53 Spring Street 4 Sergeants, 58 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
15th Precinct Captain Charles W. Caffery 220 Mercer Street 4 Sergeants, 69 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
16th Precinct Captain Henry Hedden 156 West 20th Street 4 Sergeants, 50 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
17th Precinct Captain Samuel Brower First Avenue (at the corner of Fifth Street) 4 Sergeants, 56 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
18th Precinct Captain John Cameron 22nd Street (near Second Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 74 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
19th Precinct Captain Galen T. Porter 59th Street (near Third Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 49 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
20th Precinct Captain George W. Walling 212 West 35th Street 4 Sergeants, 59 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
21st Precinct Sergeant Cornelius Burdick (acting Captain) 120 East 31st Street 4 Sergeants, 51 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
22nd Precinct Captain Johannes C. Slott 47th Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues) 4 Sergeants, 54 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
23rd Precinct Captain Henry Hutchings 86th Street (near Fourth Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 42 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
24th Precinct Captain James Todd New York waterfront 2 Sergeants and 20 Patrolmen Headquartered on Police Steamboat No. 1
25th Precinct Captain Theron Copeland 300 Mulberry Street 1 Sergeant, 38 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen Headquarters of the Broadway Squad.
26th Precinct Captain Thomas W. Thorne City Hall 1 Sergeant, 66 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
27th Precinct Captain John C. Helme 117 Cedar Street 4 Sergeants, 52 Patrolmen, and 3 Doormen
28th Precinct Captain John F. Dickson 550 Greenwich Street 4 Sergeants, 48 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
29th Precinct Captain Francis C. Speight 29th Street (near Fourth Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 82 Patrolmen, and 3 Doormen
30th Precinct Captain James Z. Bogart 86th Street and Bloomingdale Road 2 Sergeants, 19 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
32nd Precinct Captain Alanson S. Wilson Tenth Avenue and 152nd Street 4 Sergeants, 35 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen Mounted police
New York State Militia
1st Division: Major General Charles W. Sandford[33]
Unit Commander Complement Officers Other Ranks
65th Regiment Colonel William F. Berens 401
74th Regiment Colonel Watson A. Fox
20th Independent Battery Captain B. Franklin Ryer
Unorganized Militia:
Unit Commander Complement Officers Remarks
Veteran Corps of Artillery of the State of New York Guarded State Arsenal from rioters
Union Army
Department of the East: Major General John E. Wool[34] headquartered in New York[35]
Defenses of New York City: Brevet Brigadier General Harvey Brown,[36][37][34] Brig. General Edward R. S. Canby[38]
Artillery: Captain Henry F. Putnam, 12th United States Infantry Regiment.
Provost marshals tasked with overseeing the initial enforcement of the draft:
Provost Marshal General U.S.A.: Colonel James Fry
Provost Marshal General New York City: Colonel Robert Nugent (During the first day of rioting on July 13, 1863, in command of the Invalid Corps: 1st Battalion)
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton authorized five regiments from Gettysburg, mostly federalized state militia and volunteer units from the Army of the Potomac, to reinforce the New York City Police Department. By the end of the riots, there were more than 4,000 soldiers garrisoned in the troubled area.[citation needed]
Unit Commander Complement Officers Notes
Invalid Corps 1st and 2nd Battalions; just over 9 companies. Over 16 injured; 1 killed 1 missing [39]
26th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Judson S. Farrar
5th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Cleveland Winslow
7th New York National Guard Regiment Colonel Marshall Lefferts 800 Recalled back to New York; on the way, one Private drowned. On July 16, 1863 during a skirmish with rioters, the regimental casualties were one Private received a buckshot in the back of the hand and two Privates had their coats cut by bullets[40]
8th New York National Guard Regiment Brigadier General Charles C. Dodge 150
9th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Edward E. Jardine {wounded} Regiment had been mustered out in May 1863 but 200 volunteered to serve again during the draft riots[41]
11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Henry O'Brien (killed) Original regiment mustered out on June 2, 1862. Colonel O'Brien was in the process of recruiting at the time of the draft riots. The regiment was never brought back to strength and enlisted members were transferred to 17th Veteran Infantry.
13th New York Volunteer Cavalry Regiment Colonel Charles E. Davies Regiment suffered 2 fatalities during the riots.[42]
14th New York Volunteer Cavalry Regiment Colonel Thaddeus P. Mott All cavalry regiments in New York City were eventually put under the command of General Judson Kilpatrick who volunteered his services on July 17[43]
17th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Major T. W. C. Grower Regimental losses during the Draft Riots totaled 4; they were 1 enlisted man killed and 1 officer and 2 enlisted men wounded {recovered}[44]
22nd New York National Guard Regiment Colonel Lloyd Aspinwall
47th New York State Militia/National Guard Regiment Colonel Jeremiah V. Messerole
152nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Alonso Ferguson
Fiction
Wilderness: A Tale of the Civil War (1961) by Robert Penn Warren
The Banished Children of Eve, A Novel of Civil War New York (1995) by Peter Quinn
My Notorious Life: A Novel (2014) by Kate Manning
On Secret Service (2000) by John Jakes
Paradise Alley (2003) by Kevin Baker
New York: the Novel (2009) by Edward Rutherfurd
Grant Comes East (2004) by Newt Gingrich
Last Descendants (2016) by Matthew J. Kirby
Riot (2009) by Walter Dean Myers
Theatre and film:
The short-lived 1968 Broadway musical Maggie Flynn was set in the Tobin Orphanage for black children (modeled on the Colored Orphan Asylum).
Gangs of New York (2002), a film directed by Martin Scorsese, includes a fictionalized portrayal of the New York Draft Riots.
See also
American Civil War portal
Fishing Creek Confederacy
History of New York City (1855–97)
List of identities in The Gangs of New York § Draft Riots
List of incidents of civil unrest in New York City
List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
Opposition to the American Civil War
The City of New York Police Department, more commonly known as the New York Police Department and its initials NYPD, is the primary law enforcement and investigation agency within the City of New York, New York in the United States. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is one of the oldest police departments in the United States, and is the largest police force in the United States.[6] The NYPD headquarters is at 1 Police Plaza, located on Park Row in Lower Manhattan across the street from City Hall.[7] The department's mission is to "enforce the laws, preserve the peace, reduce fear, and provide for a safe environment." The NYPD's regulations are compiled in title 38 of the New York City Rules. The New York City Transit Police and New York City Housing Authority Police Department were fully integrated into the NYPD in 1995 by New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.[8]
In June 2004, there were about 45,000 sworn officers plus several thousand civilian employees; in June 2005, the number of officers dropped to 35,000. As of December 2011, that figure increased slightly to over 36,600, helped by the graduation of a class of 1,500 from the New York City Police Academy. As of Fiscal Year 2018, the NYPD's current authorized uniformed strength is 38,422[9] There are also approximately 4,500 Auxiliary Police Officers, 5,000 School Safety Agents, 2,300 Traffic Enforcement Agents, and 370 Traffic Enforcement Supervisors currently employed by the department. The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (NYC PBA), the largest municipal police union in the United States, represents over 50,000 active and retired NYC police officers.
The NYPD has a broad array of specialized services, including the Emergency Service Unit, K9, harbor patrol, air support, bomb squad, counter-terrorism, criminal intelligence, anti-gang, anti-organized crime, narcotics, public transportation, and public housing. The NYPD Intelligence Division & Counter-Terrorism Bureau has officers stationed in 11 cities internationally.[10][11] In the 1990s the department developed a CompStat system of management which has also since been established in other cities.
The NYPD has extensive crime scene investigation and laboratory resources, as well as units which assist with computer crime investigations. The NYPD runs a "Real Time Crime Center", essentially a large search engine and data warehouse operated by detectives to assist officers in the field with their investigations.[12] A Domain Awareness System, a joint project of Microsoft and the NYPD, links 6,000 closed-circuit television cameras, license plate readers, and other surveillance devices into an integrated system.[13]
Due to its high-profile location in the largest city and media center in the United States, fictionalized versions of the NYPD and its officers have frequently been portrayed in novels, radio, television, motion pictures, and video games.