The New York City Police Department told the City Council last week that its public relations arm employs 86 people, giving the department more communications staffers than many local newsrooms have journalists.

DCPI, named after its head, the deputy commissioner for public information, has more than doubled its staff in the past two years. In May 2022, police officials told councilmembers that approximately 36 staffers were assigned to the division.

Tarik Sheppard, DCPI’s leader since August, has overseen much of this growth. Using city databases and data tools created by citizen watchdogs, New York Focus identified at least 57 uniformed nypd officers assigned to dcpi, two-thirds of whom were assigned to the division after Sheppard took over. (It’s unclear how many civilian staffers dcpi employs, and whether the assignment data are fully up to date.)