New York City Department of Homeless Services Police

New York City Department of Homeless Services Police
Common name	New York City Homeless Services Police
Abbreviation	DHSPD
Patch of the New York City Department of Homeless Services Police
Motto	Protecting With Compassion
Agency overview
Formed	1993
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction*	City of New York in the state of New York, USA
Map of New York City Department of Homeless Services Police's jurisdiction.
Size	1,214.4 km²
Population	8,274,527
Legal jurisdiction	New York City
General nature	Law enforcement Local civilian police
Specialist jurisdiction	Buildings and lands occupied or explicitly controlled by the institution and the institution's personnel, and public entering the buildings and precincts of the institution.
Operational structure
Headquarters	33 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10004
Agency executive	Joseph A. Garcia, Director of Peace Officers
Parent agency	New York City Department of Homeless Services
Facilities
Stations	11 Commands
Website
NYC Department of Homeless Services Official Site
Footnotes
* Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

The New York City Department of Homeless Services Police (NYC DHS Police) is a law enforcement agency in New York City whose duties are to provide onsite security services to the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS), and to enforce state and city laws at all facilities operated by the New York City Department of Homeless Services.

The New York City Department of Homeless Services was created in 1993 and made a mayoral agency in 1999. The Department of Homeless Services Police was started in 1997 with approximately 65 peace officers assigned to various DHS facilities. By 2002, the DHS Police had over 270 special officers at DHS facilities.

Prior to 1997, there were peace officers stationed at a facility named Camp Laguardia, which was a homeless shelter in Orange County, New York. This facility was run by the New York City Human Resources Administration prior to 1993 as were all other city operated homeless shelters. The HRA Police was the law enforcement agency at the facility. In 1993 the Department of Homeless Services was formed, All other city run shelters were using private security guards. Camp Laguardia had DHS Special officers assigned to it until it closed. In 1997 when it was observed how well and efficient it was to have special officers in city run shelters, DHS started placing special officers in other shelters it operated.

DHS special officers begin service and training with the rank of Cadet. After completing peace officer training course and successfully completing various Academic, Physical tests, special officers graduate the DHS Entry Level Peace Officer academy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and are sworn into the rank of Special Officer.

Currently there are 23 facilities that the DHS Special Officers patrols, including single adult and family shelters.

When the DHS special Officer was established, the training given to Special officers was a one-week peace officer training course. By June 2002, the training course was expanded to four weeks. The current training course is seven weeks long, of which four weeks of training is given at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, two weeks of training is given at the Department of Homeless Services headquarters in Manhattan, and one week of field training is given at Charles Gay Assessment Center located on Wards Island. The training course includes training in law, police science, powers of a peace officer, defensive tactics, community interaction, radio use, arrest procedures, and first aid/CPR, as well as rigorous physical fitness training that including push ups, squats, sit-ups,running and stair Climbs. Re-training is done on a continuous basis at John Jay College. DHS special officer are now under Control and string directive from the New York City police department.