NYPD Captain flashcards
NYPD Captain · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Reasonable cause
- Facts and circumstances that would lead a reasonable officer to believe an offense has been committed and the person committed it; more than suspicion, less than conviction.
- Stop and frisk
- A brief detention based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, with a pat-down limited to weapons when there is reasonable suspicion the person is armed.
- Search incident to arrest
- A warrantless search limited to the arrestee's person and the area within immediate reach, justified by officer safety and evidence preservation.
- Miranda trigger
- Warnings are required when a person is in custody and subjected to interrogation; custody plus interrogation, not arrest alone, is the test.
- Exclusionary rule
- Evidence obtained through an unlawful search or seizure is generally suppressed, subject to exceptions such as consent, plain view, exigency, and inevitable discovery.
- Burglary elements
- Unlawful entry into a building with intent to commit a crime inside; the intent must exist at the moment of entry.
- Incident Command System
- A management structure using command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance sections, with the incident commander setting objectives for each operational period.
- Span of control
- The number of subordinates reporting to one supervisor; in incident management the target is five, with a workable range of three to seven.
- Unified command
- A structure used when multiple agencies have jurisdiction, in which each agency retains authority over its own personnel while sharing objectives.
- Staging area
- A controlled location where resources check in and await assignment, located away from the hazard with a single controlled access route.
- After-action review
- A structured post-incident review producing written corrective actions, each with an assigned owner and a completion date.
- Command discipline
- A documented non-court sanction for minor violations that states the violation, the sanction, and the member's appeal path.
- Duty to intervene
- A member's obligation to act to stop another member's excessive force and to report the conduct through the chain of command.
- Duty to report
- A member's obligation to report a known violation of law or rule by another member; failure to report is itself chargeable.
- Chain of custody
- A record of each transfer of evidence with date, time, and member; a gap must be explained by testimony, not assumed.
- Solvability factors
- Case attributes such as an identifiable suspect, available witnesses, physical evidence, and pattern linkage that guide assignment of investigative resources.
- Exceptional clearance
- A case closure in which an offense is cleared without arrest because the offender is identified and further investigation is impossible, such as death or prosecution elsewhere.
- Confidential informant reliability
- Documented basis for trusting an informant, supported by corroboration or a controlled buy, and approved by a supervisor before reliance.
- Procedural justice
- Four elements that build legitimacy: giving voice, neutral decision-making, respectful treatment, and trustworthy motives.
- Legitimacy measure
- Public trust measured by willingness to report crime, cooperate as a witness, and comply with police direction.
- Bias-free policing
- Enforcement decisions based on documented reasonable suspicion independent of protected characteristics, with stop data reviewed for disparity patterns.
- Unlawful assembly
- A gathering that meets the statutory criteria for unlawful assembly; dispersal requires a documented warning, time to comply, and an identified egress route.
- Overtime control
- Pre-approval with documented operational justification, coding to the generating operation, and periodic review against the command's allocation.
- Staffing model
- A calculation converting call volume and average handling time into required patrol strength, compared against available headcount.
- Budget variance
- The difference between allocated and actual spending, reviewed monthly and explained in writing when it exceeds a set threshold.
- Grant matching requirement
- A funder's condition that the recipient contribute a share of costs; an unfunded match is a budget liability identified before acceptance.
- Span of control patrol
- The number of officers one sergeant can directly supervise, commonly six to twelve, with verification of activity and condition at roll call.
- Progressive discipline
- A ladder from counseling to command discipline to formal charges, bypassed only when the misconduct is serious enough to warrant it.
- Hot spot deployment
- Concentration of resources where crime is clustered, evaluated for displacement by comparing adjacent areas before and after.
- Fitness for duty
- An assessment required when a member's condition or conduct impairs performance, including return from extended leave or a critical incident.
- Public information officer
- The single point of release for incident information; other members refer media inquiries and do not comment independently.
- Performance measure
- A metric defined in writing and applied consistently, with a target, a baseline, a result, and a documented corrective action.