How Many Police Officers Does NYC Have? 2026 Official Count

Numbers checked against the Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report (released September 17, 2026) and New York City Council budget reports from 2026.

How many NYPD officers are there? According to the City's most recent official count, the NYC Police Department had 34,018 uniformed members at the end of Fiscal 2026 (June 30, 2026). This guide gives that number with its source, splits uniformed officers from civilian staff, shows how the count changed over the last six years, compares it with the budget and explains how New York City hires new police officers.

How many NYPD officers are in NYC right now?

The City publishes its headcount in a few places, and each one counts on a different date. These are the official figures we found for 2026, newest last:

• 34,066 uniformed (January 2026): actual uniformed headcount as of January 2026, in the City Council Finance Division's report on the Fiscal 2027 Preliminary Plan (PDF), which uses data from the NYC Office of Management and Budget. The same report gives a uniformed vacancy rate of 2.7 percent at that time.
• 34,497 uniformed (spring 2026): actual uniformed headcount in the Council's report on the Fiscal 2027 Executive Plan (PDF). The report labels it "as of April 2026" in one place and "as of March 2026" in a note under the chart.
• 34,018 uniformed (June 30, 2026): the year-end count in the Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report. This is the latest official full-year number.

The count moves during the year because new officers are hired in Police Academy classes while others retire or leave, so a spring number can be higher than the year-end number. The NYPD's own About NYPD page gives rounded figures of "approximately 33,000 officers and 15,000 civilian employees," without a date. For a dated count, use the Mayor's Management Report.

Uniformed officers vs civilian employees

The Police Department has two kinds of staff. Uniformed members are sworn officers of every rank. Civilian members do not carry police powers; the Mayor's Management Report notes that civilians serve as traffic enforcement agents, school safety agents and police communications technicians in the 911 dispatch center. Each of those jobs has its own civil service exam (see our guides for the Traffic Enforcement Agent, School Safety Agent and Police Communications Technician exams).

Civilian counts differ by source, because the sources count different things:

• The Mayor's Management Report lists 14,326 civilian personnel at the end of Fiscal 2026.
• The Council's Preliminary Plan report counts only full-time civilian positions: 12,542 actual as of January 2026, against 14,039 budgeted for Fiscal 2026 (a 10.7 percent vacancy rate).

Both are official. The Council table is limited to full-time positions, while the Management Report's civilian line is not labeled that way, which is why its number is larger. For uniformed officers the two sources agree: both list 33,812 at the end of Fiscal 2024 and 33,614 at the end of Fiscal 2025.

How many people hold the Police Officer title?

Police Officer is the entry rank, and most uniformed members hold it. The City does not publish a headcount for the title alone in the reports above. The closest official data is NYC Open Data's Citywide Payroll Data. Its latest year, Fiscal 2025, lists 21,387 payroll records with the title Police Officer at the Police Department and a status of "Active" on June 30, 2025 (our count of the dataset, run on October 15, 2026). A payroll record is not exactly the same as a person, so treat this as close to, not exactly, the number of Police Officers. The rest of the 33,614 uniformed members that year held higher ranks, such as Detective, Sergeant, Lieutenant and Captain.

How the number changed since 2021

These are the year-end counts (June 30 of each year) from the Agency Resources tables of the Fiscal 2026 and Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Reports. City fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30, so Fiscal 2026 ended on June 30, 2026.

The uniformed count fell by about 1,000 between 2022 and 2023, stayed near 33,600 to 33,800 for three years and rose by 404 in Fiscal 2026. The civilian count went down every year from 2021 to 2025 and was nearly flat in 2026.

Actual headcount vs budgeted positions

The budget sets how many positions the City pays for; the actual headcount is how many people fill them. The two are rarely the same.

• Fiscal 2026: 35,025 uniformed positions in the plan, per the Mayor's Management Report, against 34,018 filled at the end of the year, a gap of 1,007.
• Fiscal 2027 (July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027): the Management Report lists a planned level of 34,975 uniformed positions. Along the way, the Council's reports showed 34,975 budgeted full-time uniformed positions in the Preliminary Plan and 35,370 in the Executive Plan.

Budget numbers can change during the year as the City updates its financial plan, so check the latest Council report or Mayor's Management Report before quoting one. We could not find the Fiscal 2027 adopted budget's uniformed headcount in an official NYPD-specific document, so we give the Management Report's planned level instead.

How New York City hires new police officers

Every new NYC police officer starts by taking the civil service exam for the title Police Officer, run by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). Many people call it the NYPD police officer exam. The current Notice of Examination for Exam Nos. 7311 through 7322 (PDF) covers 12 monthly exams:

• Filing: monthly application and scheduling periods from July 1, 2026, to June 14, 2027. The next periods are Exam 7315 (November 2 to 16, 2026, testing December 1 to 5, 2026) and Exam 7316 (December 1 to 14, 2026, testing January 4 to 9, 2027).
• Fee: $0.
• Test: multiple-choice, on a computer at a DCAS testing center, on 9 abilities such as written comprehension, deductive reasoning and memorization. No calculators. You need 70% to pass, and your score sets your place on the eligible list.
• Key requirements: at least 17 to take the test, at least 20 years and 6 months to be appointed and under 43 on the filing date (up to six years of military service can be deducted); a high school diploma or equivalent plus 24 college credits with a 2.0 index, or two years of honorable full-time US military service; residency in New York City or Nassau, Westchester, Suffolk, Orange, Rockland or Putnam County; and a valid unrestricted New York State driver license at appointment.
• After the test: background investigation, medical, psychological and physical tests, then the Police Academy and 24 months of probation. The notice lists a starting salary of $55,942, rising to $109,352 after five and one-half years.

Details are in our guides to how the exam works, the requirements, the 9 abilities and your list number.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report, Police Department chapter (PDF)
• Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report, Police Department chapter (PDF)
• NYC Council Finance Division: Report on the Fiscal 2027 Preliminary Plan, Police Department (PDF)
• NYC Council Finance Division: Report on the Fiscal 2027 Executive Plan, Police Department (PDF)
• NYC Open Data: Citywide Payroll Data (Fiscal Year)
• NYPD: About NYPD
• DCAS Notice of Examination, Police Officer, Exam Nos. 7311 through 7322 (PDF)

PrepRaven is an independent study site. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the City of New York, DCAS, the NYC Police Department or any City agency. Our practice questions are original and are not taken from any real test. Always confirm numbers and dates in the official sources above.

Last updated October 2026