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Seattle Police Organization

STAFFING AND RANK ORDER

The department employs approximately 1,250 sworn law enforcement officers and 500 civilian employees. Rank of our sworn officers are as follows, listed in descending order:

  1. Chief of Police
  2. Deputy Chief
  3. Assistant Chief
  4. Captain
  5. Lieutenant
  6. Sergeant
  7. Officers

Officers can take a test to become Detectives, and can keep the Detective rank along with any other promotions, i.e. Sergeant-Detective.

Civilian employees handle a variety of important support services in areas as diverse as; 9-1-1 dispatching, parking enforcement, records and evidence, latent prints, information technology, finance, personnel and other administrative duties.

DEPARTMENT BUREAUS

The Department is divided into two branches, Operational and Administrative, both of which are headed by a Deputy Chief. These branches divide into five different bureaus, Patrol Operations 1, Patrol Operations 2, Criminal Investigations, Emergency Preparedness and Field Support. Each of these bureaus is overseen by an Assistant Chief.

HOW SEATTLE IS PATROLLED

Seattle is divided areas five geographic areas called "Precincts". These areas are called the North, East, South, West and Southwest Precincts, and each are served by a police station. Precinct boundaries were determined through consideration of neighborhood boundaries, geographic and other natural boundaries.

Each precinct is divided into 17 smaller geographic areas called Sectors.

Each of these Sectors are divided into between 3 smaller sections called Beats (i.e. Ocean sector has three beats O1, O2, O3) These are the areas that individual patrol officers are assigned responsibility for.

NORTH EAST WEST SOUTH SOUTHWEST
N - Nora C - Charlie D - David R - Robert F - Frank
B - Boy E - Edward M - Mary S - Sam W - William
L - Lincoln G - George K - King O - Ocean  
J - John   Q - Queen    
U - Union        



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Data contained at this location is generally not reviewed for legal sufficiency. More info...
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The Seattle Police Department is a CALEA Accredited Agency.