Plaintiffs-appellants are union representatives of police officers employed by the New York City Police Department (“NYPD” or “Department”). They brought this action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (George B. Daniels, Judge) challenging the constitutionality of an NYPD policy that requires that a breathalyzer test — which measures the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream — be administered to an NYPD officer immediately after he or she causes injury or death as a result of firing his or her gun. Plaintiffs moved in the District Court to preliminarily enjoin the enforcement of the breathalyzer policy, and the District Court denied the motion. Plaintiffs now appeal the denial of the preliminary injunction. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
In November 2006, undercover NYPD officers in Queens, New York, shot and killed a man named Sean Bell, prompting intense and widespread criticism from the public. In the wake of the Bell shooting, the Commissioner of the NYPD appointed a committee to review the Department’s undercover operations and to make recommendations for improvements. The committee was chaired by Chief Charles V. Campisi (“Campisi”), the head of the Internal Affairs Bureau of the NYPD, which is charged with investigating police misconduct.
The committee recommended, among other things, that a breathalyzer test be administered to any officer who fires his or her weapon and causes death or injury. The Police Commissioner accepted this suggestion and, in September 2007, promulgated Interim Order 52, which established the breathalyzer policy at issue in this action.
The breathalyzer policy applies when any NYPD officer “on or off duty, is involved in a firearms discharge within New York City which results in injury to or death of a person.” J.A. 50 (Interim Order 52). The policy first requires that senior NYPD officials be notified of a shooting, including officials from the Internal Affairs Bureau. The policy then requires that a “portable breathalyzer test” be administered “in a private setting” to the “uniformed member(s) of the service who discharged a firearm.” Id. at 51. If the portable breathalyzer test yields a reading of blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or greater — the legal limit for driving an automobile in New York State — the officer in *98 question must be transported to an Internal Affairs Bureau testing facility where he or she will be given a second test on a more accurate “Intoxilyzer” machine. Id.
Plaintiffs brought this action against the City of New York, the NYPD, and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly (collectively, “defendants”), claiming that the breathalyzer policy violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs moved to preliminarily enjoin the enforcement of the breathalyzer policy, and the District Court denied the motion. Plaintiffs could not, the District Court concluded, demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits because the breathalyzer policy withstood Fourth Amendment scrutiny under the so-called “special needs” doctrine.
See Palladino v. City of N.Y.,
No. 07 Civ. 9246,
Plaintiffs brought this timely interlocutory appeal challenging the District Court’s denial of the motion for a preliminary injunction. 1 See 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a) (“[T]he courts of appeals shall have jurisdiction of appeals from ... [ijnterlocutory orders of the district courts ... refusing ... injunctions.”).
DISCUSSION
On appeal, plaintiffs argue that the District Court erred in evaluating plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction under a “likelihood-of-success” standard, rather than the less rigorous “fair-ground-for-litigation” standard. Plaintiffs also argue that the District Court abused its discretion in denying the preliminary injunction because, in plaintiffs’ view, the breathalyzer program is not reasonable under the “special needs” doctrine.
I. The District Court Correctly Applied the Likelihood-of-Success Standard
We have recognized two separate standards for whether a district court may grant a preliminary injunction:
In general, the district court may grant a preliminary injunction if the moving party establishes (1) irreparable harm and (2) either (a) a likelihood of success on the merits, or (b) sufficiently serious questions going to the merits of its claims to make them fair ground for litigation, plus a balance of the hardships tipping decidedly in favor of the moving party.
Plaza Health Labs., Inc. v. Perales,
where the moving party seeks to stay governmental action taken in the public interest pursuant to a statutory or regulatory scheme, the district court should not apply the less rigorous fair-ground-for-litigation standard and should not grant the injunction unless the moving party establishes, along with irreparable injury, a likelihood that he will succeed on the merits of his claim.
Id.
(emphasis added);
accord, e.g., Alleyne v. N.Y. State Educ. Dep’t,
First, as discussed in more detail below, the breathalyzer program qualifies as “governmental action taken in the public interest,”
Plaza Health,
II. The District Court’s Denial of the Preliminary Injunction Was Not an Abuse of Discretion
We review the denial of a preliminary injunction for abuse of discretion.
See, e.g., Alleyne,
The parties do not dispute that, assuming the breathalyzer program violates the Fourth Amendment, plaintiffs have demonstrated “irreparable harm.”
See, e.g., Covino v. Patrissi,
The principal question, therefore, is whether plaintiffs have demonstrated a “likelihood of success on the merits.”
Plaza Health,
“The Fourth Amendment requires that searches and seizures be reasonable,” and a “search or seizure is ordinarily unreasonable in the absence of individualized suspicion of wrongdoing.”
City of Indianapolis v. Edmond,
A “program” or “general scheme” of searches qualifies for treatment under the special needs doctrine only if the program’s “primary purpose” is
not
a “general interest in crime control.”
Edmond,
Thus, in order to determine whether the special needs doctrine applies, a court must conduct “an inquiry into purpose at the programmatic level.”
Edmond,
If the court makes such a finding&emdash;that is, if the court finds that the primary purpose of a program of searches is a “special need” and not a general interest in crime control&emdash;the court must then conduct a “context-specific inquiry” into the “reasonableness” of the program, weighing “ ‘the special need ... against the privacy interest advanced.’ ”
Amerson,
A. The District Court Properly Applied the Special Needs Doctrine
Plaintiffs argue that the special needs doctrine should not apply to the breathalyzer policy at issue here because the policy’s primary purpose is furthering the NYPD’s “general interest in crime control.”
Edmond,
The record shows that the breathalyzer policy has multiple purposes. Some of the policy’s purposes are related to “special needs” apart from the NYPD’s general interest in crime control, but one of its purposes is directly related to the NYPD’s role as an investigator of crimes. 2
*101 In opposition to plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, defendants submitted evidence — most notably an affidavit of Campisi, the chair of the committee that recommended the breathalyzer policy— showing that the breathalyzer policy was designed to address several issues unrelated to crime control. First, the NYPD conducts a detailed administrative review every time an officer fires his or her gun, and the breathalyzer program facilitates that review. To that end, it ensures that an officer who fires his or her gun while intoxicated — a clear violation of NYPD policy — can be quickly disciplined or removed from duty. That aim is not related to crime control; it is related to personnel management. The point is not to prosecute the offending officers but to remove them from duty or to impose on them internal, employment-related sanctions.
The breathalyzer program also operates as a deterrent to officers who may consider carrying their firearms while under the influence of alcohol. The NYPD acknowledges that some of its officers have alcohol problems, and the NYPD requires its officers to take precautions to avoid carrying their firearms into off-duty situations in which they may become intoxicated. Thus, the breathalyzer policy is designed to convey to NYPD officers the message that alcohol-related firearms incidents are likely to be discovered, providing an extra incentive to the officers to follow the NYPD’s regulations regarding firearms and alcohol. Here again, the NYPD’s interest is not in crime control but in personnel management; the breathalyzer program, in this respect, is more concerned with encouraging officers to follow the NYPD’s internal safety policies than with prosecuting NYPD officers who violate the law. In this sense, this case very much resembles
Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Association,
Another purpose of the breathalyzer program — apart from crime control — is promoting the NYPD’s reputation among New York City residents. There is no dispute that the breathalyzer program was put in place in response to the shooting of Sean Bell, a widely publicized incident that generated criticism of the NYPD by some members of the public. In this context, the breathalyzer program is an effort to promote public confidence in the NYPD by showing the public that the NYPD takes seriously its policies regarding alcohol and firearms. Moreover, when an officer fires his or her gun while not under the influence of alcohol, a breathalyzer test assures the public that the officer was fit for duty when he or she chose to fire. Here, the NYPD’s interest is in maintaining strong community relations, not in crime control.
Nevertheless, even though the record shows that several of the purposes of the breathalyzer program are unrelated to crime control, the record also shows that one of the program’s purposes is directly related to crime control. The NYPD acknowledges that it treats every shooting involving an officer as a potential crime and that the breathalyzer results could be *102 used as evidence in a criminal investigation of the officer who was tested. In other words, to the extent that a police officer commits a crime by firing his or her gun, the NYPD is charged with investigating that crime, and the breathalyzer program is meant to be one investigatory tool at the NYPD’s disposal.
There are, therefore, multiple purposes of the breathalyzer policy — some unrelated to crime control and one directly related to crime control — and the critical question in determining whether the special needs doctrine applies is whether the NYPD’s general interest in crime control is the policy’s
“primary
purpose.”
Edmond,
The District Court concluded that plaintiffs had failed to show a likelihood that they could prove that the NYPD’s general interest in crime control is the primary purpose of the breathalyzer policy. In the District Court’s words, “plaintiffs have proffered no evidence that [Interim Order] 52 is a regulation primarily concerned with law enforcement,” nor have plaintiffs “shown that a primary purpose of the regulation is to generate evidence for prosecution.”
Palladino,
We also hold that, having found that the primary purpose of the breathalyzer policy was not crime control, the District Court correctly applied the special needs doctrine to evaluate the policy. Here we must clarify one aspect of law surrounding the “special needs” doctrine: the special needs doctrine applies to any program of searches whose “primary purpose” is a government interest other than crime control,
Edmond,
That conclusion, we think, derives naturally from prior case law. For example, in
Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz,
Thus, even if crime control is one purpose of a program of searches, the program may nevertheless be reasonable under the special needs doctrine so long as crime control is not the program’s primary purpose. As a result, even though the District Court found that crime control *103 was one purpose of the breathalyzer policy, the Court correctly applied the special needs doctrine upon finding that crime control was not the policy’s ‘primary purpose.
B. The Breathalyzer Policy Is Reasonable Under the “Special Needs” Balancing Test
After determining that the special needs doctrine applies, the next step of the inquiry is to assess the reasonableness of the breathalyzer policy by weighing “ ‘the special need ... against the privacy interest advanced’ ” under a three-factor balancing test.
Amerson,
First, as to the “the nature of the privacy interest involved,”
Cassidy,
Second, as to “the character and degree of the governmental intrusion,”
Cassidy,
Third, as to the “the nature and immediacy of the government’s needs” and “the efficacy of its policy in addressing those needs,”
Cassidy,
Finally, we recognize that the NYPD’s reputation in the eyes of the public is directly tied to its effectiveness as a police force.
See, e.g., Pappas v. Giuliani,
In light of each of these factors, we conclude that “ ‘the special need[s]’ ” asserted by the NYPD outweigh the “ ‘privacy interest advanced’ ” by plaintiffs.
Amerson,
CONCLUSION
In summary:
(1) The NYPD’s breathalyzer policy constitutes “governmental action taken in the public interest pursuant to a statutory or regulatory scheme,” and thus the District Court correctly applied the likelihood-of-success standard in evaluating plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
*105 (2) The District Court did not commit clear error in finding that the primary-purpose of the breathalyzer policy was not the NYPD’s general interest in crime control.
(3) The fact that crime control is one purpose — but not the primary purpose— of a program of searches does not bar the application of the special needs doctrine. Thus, even though the District Court found that crime control was one purpose of the NYPD breathalyzer policy, the District Court correctly applied the special needs doctrine after finding that crime control was not the primary purpose of the policy.
(4) Applying the special needs doctrine’s three-factor balancing test, the NYPD breathalyzer program is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment based on the record at this stage of the proceedings.
Accordingly, the District Court did not err in denying plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and the September 30, 2008 order of the District Court is AFFIRMED.
Notes
. In addition, defendants moved to dismiss the complaint&emdash;or, alternatively, for summary judgment&emdash;under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and the District Court denied defendants' motions in the same ruling in which it denied plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. We do not have jurisdiction to review the denial of defendants' motions on this interlocutory appeal. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (providing that the courts of appeals have general appellate jurisdiction only over "final decisions of the district courts”).
. Interim Order 52, the order that created the breathalyzer program, defines the program's *101 purpose as follows:
To ensure the highest levels of integrity at the scene of police involved firearms discharges which result in injury to or death of a person, on or off duty, within New York City.
J.A. 50. Evidence in the record casts light on the meaning of that language and provides additional purposes for the breathalyzer program.
. An NYPD officer is subject to drug or alcohol tests at many different times in his or her career, including when an officer first enters service in the NYPD as a probationary police officer and again at the end of the officer's probationary period; when an officer applies for specialty assignments, such as an assignment to the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau; when there is a reasonable suspicion that an officer has ingested a controlled substance; and when an officer has been placed on disciplinary probation because he or she caused injury by driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated. NYPD officers are also subject to random drug tests throughout their service in the NYPD.
