Police Employee Data
Definition
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program defines law enforcement officers as individuals who ordinarily carry a firearm and a badge, have full arrest powers, and are paid from governmental funds set aside specifically for sworn law enforcement representatives.
User's note
Because of law enforcement’s varied service requirements and functions, as well as the distinct demographic traits and characteristics of each jurisdiction, readers should use caution when drawing comparisons between agencies’ staffing levels based upon police employment data from the UCR Program. In addition, the data presented here reflect existing staff levels and should not be interpreted as preferred officer strengths recommended by the FBI. Lastly, it should be noted that the totals given for sworn officers for any particular agency reflect not only the patrol officers on the street but also officers assigned to various other duties such as those in administrative and investigative positions and those assigned to special teams.
Data collection
- Each year, law enforcement agencies across the United States report to the UCR Program the total number of sworn law enforcement officers and civilians in their agencies as of October 31.
- Civilian employees include personnel such as clerks, radio dispatchers, meter attendants, stenographers, jailers, correctional officers, and mechanics provided that they are full-time employees of the agency.
Summary overview
- A total of 14,744 city and county agencies provided data on the number of full-time law enforcement employees (sworn officers and civilian personnel) in 2010.
- Cities with less than 10,000 residents reported an average of 3.5 officers per 1,000 inhabitants, the largest officer-to-individual rate among city population groups. (See Table 71.)
- County agencies reported an average of 2.7 officers per 1,000 inhabitants. (See Table 71.)
- In 2010, sworn officers accounted for 69.6 percent of all law enforcement personnel in the United States. (Based on Table 74.)
- The rate of sworn officers was 2.4 per 1,000 inhabitants in the Nation in 2010. The rate of full-time law enforcement employees (civilian and sworn) per 1,000 inhabitants was 3.5. (Based on Table 74.)
What you won't find on this page
Line-of-duty deaths of police officers. The annual UCR publication Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted contains extensive information on line-of-duty deaths (felonious and accidental) and assaults on local, state, tribal, and federal officers. The publication can be found at www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr.
If you have questions:
For questions about this information or for Web assistance, please contact the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division at (304) 625-4995. For more information about the UCR Master Files from which this publication was derived and other available UCR data, see UCR Electronic and Hard Copy Data Dissemination Standard Operating Procedures. To obtain UCR data not presented in this publication, please contact us via e-mail at cjis_comm@leo.gov.