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Local police departments make up more than two-thirds of the 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States. A local police department is a general purpose law enforcement agency, other than a sheriff’s office, that is operated by a unit of local government such as a town, city, township, or county. Tribal police are classified as local police in Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) data collections. The summary findings below are based on the 2008 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA) and the 2007 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey.
Summary findings
- In 2008, 12,501 local police departments with the equivalent of at least one full-time officer were operating in the U.S.
- In 2008, local police departments had about 593,000 full-time employees, including 461,000 sworn officers. About 60% of all state and local sworn personnel were local police officers.
- Municipal and township police departments employed an average of 2.3 full-time officers per 1,000 residents.
- About half of local police departments employed fewer than 10 sworn personnel, and about three-fourths served a population of less than 10,000.
- In 2007, about 1 in 8 local police officers were women, compared to 1 in 13 in 1987.
- About 1 in 4 officers were members of a racial or ethnic minority in 2007, compared to 1 in 6 officers in 1987.
- From 2003 to 2007, the number of Hispanic or Latino local police officers increased by 16%. In 2007, about 1 in 10 officers was Hispanic or Latino.
- In 2007, local police recruits were required to complete an average of 1,370 training hours.
- In 2007, more than 4 in 5 local police officers were employed by a department that used physical agility tests (86%) and written aptitude tests (82%) in the hiring process, and more than 3 in 5 by one that used personality inventories (66%).
- Average starting salaries for entry-level local police officers in 2007 ranged from $26,600 per year in the smallest jurisdictions to $49,500 in the largest. Overall, the average starting salary earned by entry-level officers was about $40,500.
- Overall, local police operating costs for fiscal year 2007 were $116,500 per sworn officer and $260 per resident.
- During 2007, more than half (55%) of local police departments used regularly scheduled foot patrol, and about a third (32%) used bicycle patrol.
- In 2007, 67% of local police officers were employed by a department that required them to wear protective body armor at all times while in the field, compared to 59% in 2003.
- An estimated 75% of local police officers were employed by a department that authorized the use of conducted energy devices—such as Tasers—during 2007, up from 47% in 2003.
- Sixty-one percent of local police departments regularly used video cameras in patrol cars during 2007, compared to 55% in 2003. There were about 71,000 in-car cameras in use during 2007, compared to 49,000 in 2003.
- More than 90% of local police departments serving 25,000 or more residents were using in-field computers during 2007.
- In 2007, about 9 in 10 local police officers were employed by a department that used in-field computers, compared to about 3 in 10 officers in 1990.
- A majority of local police departments serving 10,000 or more residents had sworn personnel assigned to a multiagency drug task force during 2007.
Data Collections & Surveys | |
Publications & Products | |
Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories, 2009
Presents data on the more than 400 state, municipal, county, and federal crime laboratories operating in the United States during 2009. |
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Press Release | PDF (861K) | ASCII file (36K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 48K)
Part of the Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories Series
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Contacts between Police and the Public, 2008
Presents findings from a nationally representative survey of nearly 60,000 residents age 16 or older about their contact with police during the 12 months prior to the interview. |
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Press Release | PDF (932K) | ASCII file (48K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 51K) | Codebooks and Datasets
Part of the Contacts between Police and the Public Series
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Arrest in the United States, 1980-2009
Presents new annual estimates of arrests in the United States covering the 30-year period from 1980 through 2009. |
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Press Release | PDF (2.5M) | ASCII file (46K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 37K)
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Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2008
Presents the results of the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, which is conducted every four years and covers approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. |
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PDF (836K) | ASCII file (36K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 23K)
Part of the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Series
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Local Police Departments, 2007
Presents data collected from a representative sample of local police departments nationwide on a variety of agency characteristics. |
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PDF (580K) | ASCII file (28K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 58K)
Part of the Local Police Departments Series
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Gang Units in Large Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2007
Presents data from the first nationwide study of specialized police units dedicated solely to addressing gang activity. |
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Acrobat (PDF 378K) | ASCII file (20K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 33K)
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Women in Law Enforcement, 1987-2008
Presents data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) surveys, covering 1987 to 2007, and from the Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers (FLEO), from 1996 to 2008. |
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PDF (196K) | ASCII file (11K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 9K)
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Arrest-Related Deaths in the United States, 2003-2005
Presents the first findings from the law enforcement collection of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP), which is the largest resource of information ever collected on arrest-related deaths. |
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Press Release | PDF (157K) | ASCII file (29K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 22K) | To order paper version
Part of the Arrest-Related Deaths Series
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Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2004
Reports the results of a census, conducted every four years, of all State and local law enforcement agencies operating nationwide. |
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Press Release | PDF (337K) | ASCII file (34K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 60K) | To order paper version
Part of the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Series
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Local Police Departments, 2003
Presents data collected from a representative sample of local police department nationwide on a variety of agency characteristics based on the 2003 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey. |
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PDF (844K) | ASCII file (34K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 60K) | Codebooks and Datasets | To order paper version
Part of the Local Police Departments Series
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Arrest-Related Deaths, 2003-2009 - Statistical Tables
Provides data on the circumstances of deaths that occur during, or shortly after, state or local law enforcement officers engage in an arrest or restraint process. |
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Press Release | PDF (1M) | ASCII file (23K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 44K)
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Average base starting salary for entry-level officers in local police departments, 2000 and 2003
Figure 7 from Local Police Departments, 2003 |
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Download CSV file (Data Table 1 KB)
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Local Police Departments, 2003 Full-time employment by local police departments, 1987-2003
Local Police Departments, 2003 Full-time employment by local police departments, 1987-2003 |
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Spreadsheet (1K)
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Female and minority local police officers, 1987 and 2003
Figure 3 from Local Police Departments, 2003 |
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Download CSV file (Data Table 1 KB)
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Law Enforcement Officers, 1975-1998 (Sworn Personnel)
Presents the number of full-time sworn law enforcement officers, rate per 100,000 residents, and percent change since 1975 in the United States. |
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Download CSV file (Spreadsheet 2K)
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Selected Crime, Criminal Justice, and Demographic Data - 25 Largest Cities
Presents selected crime data, as well as data on criminal justice resources and demographic variables, for the 25 largest cities. |
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Download CSV file (Spreadsheet 12K)
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Selected Crime, Criminal Justice, and Demographic Data - 90 Most Populous Counties
Selected crime data, as well as data on criminal justice resources and demographic
variables, for the 90 most populous counties. |
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Download CSV file (Spreadsheet 34K)
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Terms & Definitions | |
Local law enforcement officer |
An employee of a local law enforcement agency who is an officer sworn to carry out law
enforcement duties. Examples of this class are sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, chiefs of
police, city police officers, and sworn personnel of law enforcement subunits of port
and transit authorities. For national level general data, this class includes
campus police officers employed by of local city and community college
districts.
Private campus police are excluded. |
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Sworn officers |
Persons formally authorized to make arrests while acting within the scope of explicit
legal authority. |
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