Police department org chart example
A city police department of about eighty sworn officers and thirty civilian staff, drawn at the command level, which is the chart the city manager, a new lieutenant and an accreditation assessor each read for different reasons. The chief holds two deputy chiefs: operations, where patrol and investigations live, and administration, where records, dispatch, evidence, training, fleet, budget and hiring do. The one unit that reports to the chief alone is professional standards, because it investigates everyone else on the page.
How a police department is usually structured
A police department is run by a chief who answers to the city manager or the mayor, and the department's chart starts at the chief: the city manager belongs on the city's chart, and a civilian review board, where one exists, reviews the department rather than managing it, so it belongs on a governance chart beside this one. Under the chief the department splits into operations, which is the work the public sees, and administration, which is everything that lets the work happen and be proved afterward. The one unit that sits with the chief is professional standards, the internal affairs function, because it investigates complaints against everyone else on the chart, including the deputy chiefs; drawn under operations it would report to the people it investigates, and an accreditation assessor will say so.
Operations is two divisions. Patrol is the largest, drawn as a captain with a lieutenant for each shift stacked beneath, one of them open, because a shift without a lieutenant is the vacancy the whole department feels; the sergeants and officers of each shift belong on the shift's own chart. Beside the shifts sit the units that work across them: traffic, the school resource sergeant whose officers are assigned to the school district under an agreement, and community services. Investigations is a captain over two detective sergeants, one for crimes against persons and one for property, a special investigations sergeant for narcotics and vice, and a civilian victim advocate, who is drawn in investigations because that is where her cases come from, not in a box of civilians somewhere else.
Administration is where the civilians mostly are, and the chart draws them where they work rather than in a separate civilian column: the records manager, the evidence and property technician, the crime analyst, the budget analyst and the recruiting coordinator each have a card in the line that directs their day, with the department color telling the reader which. Dispatch is the county's consolidated 911 center and the city's IT department supports the building under an agreement, so both are drawn as contractors: they are on the chart because the department cannot run without them, and marked because the department does not employ them. Two dotted lines run to the investigations captain, from the evidence technician, whose chain of custody exists for the detectives, and from the crime analyst, whose product does. Training carries a cadet, the department's route from a college program to a sworn hire.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Command | Chief of Police; Deputy Chief, Assistant Chief; Captain, Commander, Major (in a larger department); Professional Standards Lieutenant or Commander |
| Supervisors | Lieutenant (a shift, a division or a unit), Sergeant (a squad, a unit, training, traffic, school resource), Detective Sergeant |
| Officers | Police Officer, Master Patrol Officer, Corporal, Detective, K-9 Handler, School Resource Officer, Traffic Officer; Police Cadet (as intern), Reserve Officer (volunteer) |
| Civilian staff and outside | Records Manager, Records Clerk, Evidence and Property Technician, Crime Analyst, Victim Advocate, Public Information Officer, Budget Analyst, HR and Recruiting Coordinator, Fleet and Facilities Coordinator; county or regional dispatch center and city IT (as contractors); the city manager or mayor on the city's chart, a civilian review board on a governance chart |
Where these charts go wrong
Police charts go wrong by drawing internal affairs under operations; by drawing the department by rank, so that the chart is a roster with lines; by folding dispatch into patrol, where the county's employees appear to work for a shift lieutenant; by drawing a separate civilian box, so that the records manager has no line to anyone; by leaving out the school resource officers, who are assigned to the district and still the department's officers; by drawing every officer, which is a staffing table, not an org chart; and by putting the city manager or a review board above the chief on the operating chart, where authority exercised in meetings is drawn as a manager.
Questions people ask
- How is a police department structured?
- A chief over two lines: operations, under a deputy chief, with patrol, drawn as a captain over the shift lieutenants and the units that work across shifts, and investigations, a captain over detective sergeants by crime type; and administration, under a second deputy chief, with support services, records, dispatch, evidence, training and fleet, and administrative services, budget, hiring and technology. Professional standards reports to the chief directly. In a department under about forty officers the captains report to the chief and there are no deputy chiefs; the divisions are the same.
- Who does internal affairs report to?
- The chief, and only the chief. Professional standards investigates complaints against officers and supervisors across the whole department, including the deputy chiefs, so any line that puts it under operations or administration has it reporting to someone it may investigate. Accreditation standards ask for that line, and a chart that draws it anywhere else is the first thing an assessor marks. In a very small department the chief does the work personally, and the chart says so.
- Where do civilian employees go on a police org chart?
- Where they work. The records manager, the evidence technician and the crime analyst report to the support services lieutenant; the victim advocate reports to the investigations captain; the budget analyst and the recruiting coordinator report to the administrative services manager. Give each a card in the line that directs their day and let the department color say which. A separate civilian box draws two departments where there is one.
- Should every officer be on the department org chart?
- No. The department chart is the chief, the command staff, the lieutenants and the units, and it fits on a page; each shift and each unit has its own chart with the sergeants and the officers on it, which the lieutenant keeps. A chart drawn to every officer is a staffing table with lines, and it is out of date the day a transfer posts. Draw the shift as a lieutenant card, and the shift draws itself.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product departmentProduct, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Consulting firmThree practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practiceA clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management companyThe owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.