The Port Charles Police Department, also known as the PCPD, is the police department of Port Charles. It has handled several crimes in the city, but not always well. It has had several officers who were also informants to the mob.
History
The Port Charles Police Department (PCPD) has played a continuing prominent role on General Hospital since 1979, when PCPD Captain Burt Ramsey became a series regular. In January 1983, Robert Scorpio was appointed PCPD Commissioner, a post he held until December of 1985. Lee Baldwin, leaving shortly as Mayor, declined Robert's recommendation to appoint Captain Ramsey as Commissioner, which led to Burt Ramsey and Anna Devane being named Co-Chiefs of the PCPD by incoming Mayor Ken Morgan. This was an experiment which led to disaster, with Burt deciding to become head of the Port Charles mob.
Anna assumed sole command of the PCPD in December of 1986, but was forced to resign in April of 1987 when unsubstantiated allegations of mob influence continued to swirl around the department. Captain Guy Lewis was appointed as Chief, and he continued to run the department for the rest of the year. Robert Scorpio, back in town after a brief exit, was asked by the state police commissioner and Chief Lewis to re-assume command as commissioner, a post he accepted in early 1988 with the kidnapping of Anna by Grant Putnam. The second time, Scorpio served as PCPD Commissioner for 4 years. During that time Anna served as acting PCPD commissioner in January of 1990 when Robert faked his death to solve a murder, and Chief Lewis stepped in to serve as acting commissioner in the Spring of 1991 when Scorpio briefly became a fugitive, along with his brother Mac.
When Robert left to find Anna in early 1992, Sean Donely reluctantly agreed to serve as Acting Commissioner, pending the return of Scorpio. When Anna and Robert were declared dead, Sean took the permanent job, and served for three years until 1995, when he was shot and left Port Charles for Boston. No head of the PCPD was mentioned for over a year, until 1996 when Robert's brother Mac Scorpio took over. Mac served as Commissioner between 1996 and 2012. Compared to his brother Robert as Commissioner, Mac was much more of an administrator than Robert, who left many of those routine duties to others.
In 2006, A shootout occured at the police station when Manny Ruiz took the police commissioner's stepdaughter, Maxie Jones, hostage. Dillon Quartermaine was shot and Maxie was saved by Diego Alcazar, who ironically attempts to kill Maxie two years later. Dillon later recovers. In July 2008, there was almost another hostage crisis at the PCPD involving Lulu Spencer, Johnny Zacchara, and Edward Quartermaine.
In early 2012, A member of the PCPD Ronnie Dimestico was revealed to be a Serial Attacker and was responsible for kidnapping both Lulu and Sam and for threatening to kill both of them as well as threatening to also kill Dante Falconeri, after Ronnie was shot and killed by John McBain all of Ronnie's crimes were revealed and the PCPD went through a scandal forcing the Mayor Janice Lomax to fire to Mac Scorpio as Police Commissioner. The mayor later hires Anna Devane, making it her second time to lead the PCPD, the first being; between December of 1985 and May of 1987.
The following January of 2015, Janice Lomax is elected as mayor of Port Charles again and as her first act in her new term she fires Anna Devane and hires Kyle Sloane as the new Commissioner.
After Sloane was fired in late May 2015, Mayor Lomax appointed former Federal Agent Jordan Ashford to the job of Commissioner.