Department Bulletins & Notices

Department Bulletins are issued by the Chief of Police and are distributed Department wide. Department Bulletins may contain directives, general information, training information, special orders, event orders or deployments. Department Bulletins shall be consistent with Department General Orders. However, when a Department General Order no longer complies with the law or contains inaccurate or out-of-date information, the Department may issue a Department Bulletin that supplements or amends the Department General Order. Whenever a Department Bulletin supplements or amends a substantive provision of a Department General Order, within two weeks of its issuance, the Department Bulletin and the Department General Order shall be calendared before the Police Commission for discussion and approval.

Prior to its issuance, the Legal Division shall review the proposed Department Bulletin and determine whether it supplements or amends in a substantive manner a Department General Order. Department Bulletins announcing non-substantive amendments or supplements to a Department General Order such as administrative information about a name, address or telephone number do not need to be calendared before the Police Commission for discussion and approval.

There are three categories of Department Bulletins:

Class "A" Directives, Supplements to General Orders or Department Manuals, and Legal Updates. Class "A" Bulletins must be approved by each Assistant Chief, each Deputy Chief and Department legal staff prior to publication.
Class "B" Training Information, Special Orders, Event Orders, and Deployments. Class "B" Bulletins must be approved by the Assistant Chief(s) and Deputy Chief(s) whose operations are affected by the bulletin.
Class "C": General (non-technical, non-legal) Information, Special Messages from the Chief of Police and Non-Operational Information. Class "C" Bulletins must be approved by the senior ranking member regularly in charge of the unit to which the author is assigned and the senior ranking member regularly in charge of the Legal Division.

For more information see Department General Orders 3.01.