BLUELINE DIRECTIVES
Chicago Police Department General Orders, explained
A plain-English guide to CPD's General Orders — what they are, how the G01–G10 series is organized, and where to read the official text.
Search the directives as checklists →BLUELINE DIRECTIVES
A plain-English guide to CPD's General Orders — what they are, how the G01–G10 series is organized, and where to read the official text.
Search the directives as checklists →General Orders are the Chicago Police Department's top-level written policies. They are part of CPD's Department Directives System — the body of rules that tells every member of the department how to act, from use of force and foot pursuits to arrest processing, property inventory, and discipline.
If you searched for the City of Chicago's general orders, this is almost certainly what you meant: "general orders" is the police department's term for its department-wide policies. They are public, and the authoritative copies live on CPD's official Directives Management System.
General Orders are grouped into ten numbered series, each covering one area of department policy:
The department's mission and core values, its organization for command, and the rules of the directives system itself (G01-03).
Protection of human rights, First Amendment rights, community policing, the prohibition on racial profiling and other bias-based policing, and interactions with youth.
Day-to-day patrol policy: communications systems, the use-of-force suite, foot pursuits, and investigatory and traffic stops.
First-on-scene investigative duties — crime scene protection, missing and found persons, hate crimes, orders of protection, and traffic crashes.
Emergency and large-scale incident plans: the immediate emergency plan, special response plans, the critical incident response program, and hazardous-materials incidents.
Everything after an arrest — field arrest procedures, restraining arrestees, strip-search rules, and arrestee communications and care.
Inventorying property and evidence, and vehicle towing and relocation operations.
The complaint and disciplinary system and conduct prohibitions — retaliation, gifts and gratuities, sexual misconduct, and membership in criminal or biased organizations.
Computerized information systems and the access, dissemination, and retention of department data.
Gang violence reduction strategy and narcotics enforcement policy.
General Orders are one of several directive types in the Department Directives System. The prefix on a directive number tells you what kind it is:
| Prefix | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| G | General Order | Department-wide policy — the highest-authority directive type. |
| S | Special Order | Detailed procedures that implement policy, often for specific units or programs (e.g., S03-14, Body-Worn Cameras). |
| E | Employee Resource | Personnel matters — benefits, medical policy, employment rules. |
| U | Uniform and Property | Uniform, equipment, and property standards. |
| D | Department Notice | Time-limited announcements and interim guidance. |
When directives conflict, General Order G01-03 sets the precedence: a General Order supersedes other directive types, a more recent directive supersedes an older one, and the directive most specific to the situation governs — even over a later-dated, more general one.
Every published directive is free to read on CPD's official Directives Management System. Each directive page shows its issue and effective dates and what it rescinds, so you can confirm you're reading the current version. Directives change often — amended, rescinded, and reissued throughout the year under consent-decree reform and department review — so treat any downloaded PDF as a snapshot and verify against the live site.
Yes. All published directives, including every General Order, are free to read on the department's official site at directives.chicagopolice.org.
A General Order states department-wide policy; a Special Order implements it with more detailed procedures, often for a specific unit or program. If they conflict, the General Order controls.
"General orders" is CPD's term for its top-level directives. Other city agencies publish their own rules and regulations under different names, so a search for the city's general orders nearly always points to the police department's Directives System.
Continuously — new versions are issued throughout the year. Each directive lists its issue date, effective date, and what it rescinds. Always check the official site for the current version.
Blueline Directives is an unofficial field reference built on the CPD directive library, synced weekly from the official site. Describe a situation in plain language and get the governing directives back as a checklist — notifications, paperwork, and scene duties — with every requirement cited to the order it came from, and a link to the official text.
Try Blueline Directives — free during early accessUnofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Chicago Police Department or the City of Chicago.