Department Procedures: Directive Hierarchy, Notifications, and Documentation
This domain tests whether you can find the controlling written directive, apply it in sequence, and prove afterwards that you did. The exam favors scenarios where the substantive police action was lawful but the procedural chain was broken.
The hierarchy of directives
- Patrol Guide - the operational procedures: required action, required notification, required record.
- Administrative Guide - personnel, leave, payroll, equipment, and command administration.
- Interim Orders - temporary amendments to a specific procedure; they supersede the Patrol Guide text on that subject until rescinded or folded into a revision.
- Operations Orders - date- or event-specific instructions (parades, details, deployments).
When directives conflict, the more specific and more recent controls. A procedure stating a supervisor "will respond" is not satisfied by a telephone call; response means physical presence at the scene.
Notification chain
Desk officer → patrol supervisor → precinct commander → patrol borough → Patrol Services Bureau duty chief, with the Operations Unit notified for anything likely to draw media, outside agencies, or a critical-incident response. Every notification is logged with time and the name of the person notified, in the command log and the supervisor's memo book.
Worked example
A sergeant authorizes entry into an apartment after a neighbor reports a strong gas odor. The emergency exception supports the entry. The procedural question is whether the sergeant notified the desk officer, requested ESU/FDNY, and documented the factual basis for the emergency. Reviewing the memo book, a captain should find all three. If only the entry is recorded, the captain corrects the documentation and addresses the notification failure - not the entry itself.
Traps that cost marks
Treating the Patrol Guide as advisory; reading "should" as optional where the procedure says "will"; assuming an Interim Order was permanently incorporated; documenting the outcome but not the notification chain; ignoring the desk officer's log because the memo book looks complete.