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About this Topic | |
“Law enforcement” is the term that describes the individuals and agencies responsible for enforcing laws and maintaining public order and public safety. Law enforcement includes the prevention, detection, and investigation of crime and the apprehension and detention of individuals suspected of law violation.
The BJS Law Enforcement Unit maintains more than a dozen national data collections covering federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and special topics in law enforcement. Most data series are collected every 2 to 4 years and focus on aggregate or agency-level responses, meaning the information that is collected pertains to units, such as police departments, training academies, and crime labs. The data from law enforcement agencies provide national estimates for personnel, equipment, operations, agency policies, budgets, and job functions across agencies. The Law Enforcement Unit collects data on contacts between the public and police, special units within law enforcement agencies, and trends in police organization.
About the Webpage
This website is organized so that specific types of agencies and issues related to law enforcement can be accessed through designated links. Each webpage provides a brief description of the topic and highlights key findings from our most current reports. More detailed information is available in our full reports, which can be retrieved through links in the Publications and Products section of the webpage. In addition to our most current publications, reports from earlier administrations of the series and supporting materials are provided when available. Codebooks displaying both detailed information about the data collection process and notable features of the data, survey instruments, and actual data files are available electronically and can be obtained through links in the Data Collection and Surveys section of the webpage. A complete listing of our core and supplementary data collections is available below.
Data Collections & Surveys | |
Publications & Products | |
Sheriffs' Offices, 2007 - Statistical Tables
Presents data collected from a nationally representative sample of sheriffs' offices on a variety of agency characteristics. |
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PDF (706K) | ASCII file (16K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 65K)
Part of the Sheriffs' Office Series
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Arrest in the United States, 1990-2010
Presents annual estimates of arrests in the United States covering the period from 1990 through 2010. |
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PDF (2M) | ASCII file (41K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 48K)
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Hiring and Retention of State and Local Law Enforcement Officers, 2008 - Statistical Tables
Presents the results of a special survey administered to a nationally representative sample of agencies that participated in the 2008 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies. |
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PDF (995K) | ASCII file (36K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 89K)
Part of the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Series
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Officers, 2008
Presents data from 73 federal law enforcement agencies that employed full-time officers with authority to make arrests and to carry a firearm while on duty. |
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PDF (1M) | ASCII file (28K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 36K)
Part of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Series
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Violent Crime against the Elderly Reported by Law Enforcement in Michigan, 2005-2009
Presents statistics about violent victimization of persons age 65 or older reported by law enforcement agencies into the FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System from 2005 to 2009. |
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Press Release | PDF (1.3M) | ASCII file (38K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 46K)
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Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008
Presents findings from data on homicides that occurred in the United States from 1980 through 2008. It also includes overall homicide rates for 2009 and 2010. |
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Press Release | PDF (1M) | ASCII file (48K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 76K)
Part of the Homicide Trends in the United States 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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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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Law Enforcement aviation unit personnel, by position title, 2007
Table 11 from Aviation Unit in Large Law Enforcement Agencies, 2007 Special Report |
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Download CSV file (Data Table 2 KB)
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Law enforcement agencies with 100 or more sworn personnel and aviation units, by agency type and size, 2007
Table 1 from Aviation Units in Large Law Enforcement Agencies, 2007 Special Report |
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Download CSV file (Data Table 2 KB)
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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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Types of instructors in state and local law enforcement training academies, 2006
Table 3 from State and Local Enforcement Training Academies, 2006 |
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Download CSV file (Spreadsheet 1 KB)
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Operating expenditures of state and local law enforcement training academies, by type of operating agency, FY 2005
Table 9 from State and Local Law Enforcement Training Academies, 2006 |
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Download CSV file (Spreadsheet 2 KB)
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Campuses with 24-hour patrol and emergency telephone access to law enforcement, 2004-05
Table 4 from Campus Law Enforcement, 2004-05 Special Report |
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Download CSV file (Data Table 1 KB)
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Community policing activities of campus law enforcement agencies, 2004-05
Table 9 from Campus Law Enforcement, 2004-05 |
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Download CSV file (Data Table 2 KB)
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Employment by Officers of inspector general of full-time personnel authorized to make arrest and carry firearms, September 2004
Table 3 from Federal Law Enforcement Officers, 2004 |
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Download CSV file (Data Table 2 KB)
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Terms & Definitions | |
Backlog |
A case not completed within 30 days is classified as backlogged. |
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CODIS |
COSIS is an acronym for Combined DNA Index System, which is a computer software
program
that operates local, State, and national databases of DNA
profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons. |
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Chemical agents |
A chemical compound which has deleterious effects on human health. There are a number
of different types of chemical agents, and a range of uses for these compounds, from
crowd control to chemical warfare. |
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Crime laboratories |
A scientific laboratory (with at least one full-time natural scientist) that examines
physical evidence in criminal matters, and provides reports and opinion testimony with
respect to such physical evidence in courts of law. |
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Cross deputization agreements |
Allow law enforcement personnel from state and tribal entities to cross jurisdictions
in criminal cases. Cross deputization agreements have been used to enhance law
enforcement capabilities in areas were state and tribal lands were contiguous and
intermingled. Under some agreements, federal, state, county/local, and/or tribal law
enforcement officers have the power to arrest Indian and non-Indian wrongdoers
wherever
the violation of law occurs. |
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Related Links | |