Deltek Analyst Luke Harris reports.
As we take time to honor police officers this week, it is important to look at statistics surrounding our nation’s officers and their occupation. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) conducts the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies every four years, with the most recent published in 2011, using data from 2008. The census reports that:
- State and local law enforcement agencies employed about 1,133,000 persons on a full-time basis in 2008, including 765,000 sworn personnel. About 60 percent of all state and local sworn personnel were local police officers.
- In 2008, there were 12,501 local police departments in the U.S.
- 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.
- Overall, local police operating costs for fiscal year 2007 were $116,500 per sworn officer and $260 per resident.
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