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Table 75

Full-time Civilian Law Enforcement Employees

by Population Group

Percent of Total, 2017

Population group Percent
civilian
employees
Number
of
agencies
2017
estimated
population
TOTAL AGENCIES: 30.0 13,128 281,979,640
TOTAL CITIES 22.1 10,058 193,187,549
GROUP I (250,000 and over) 23.5 79 60,607,956
1,000,000 and over (Group I subset) 23.8 11 27,835,810
500,000 to 999,999 (Group I subset) 22.5 23 17,010,028
250,000 to 499,999 (Group I subset) 23.6 45 15,762,118
GROUP II (100,000 to 249,999) 23.1 198 29,257,403
GROUP III (50,000 to 99,999) 22.3 431 30,031,331
GROUP IV (25,000 to 49,999) 19.7 775 26,916,000
GROUP V (10,000 to 24,999) 18.7 1,609 25,660,537
GROUP VI (under 10,000) 21.8 6,966 20,714,322
METROPOLITAN COUNTIES 40.2 1,241 67,301,047
NONMETROPOLITAN COUNTIES 40.5 1,829 21,491,044
SUBURBAN AREAS1 33.7 7,001 120,076,115
  • 1 Suburban areas include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and county law enforcement agencies that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Suburban areas exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city. The agencies associated with suburban areas also appear in other groups within this table.

Data Declaration

Provides the methodology used in constructing this table and other pertinent information about this table.

Overview

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Full-time Civilian Law Enforcement Employees, by Population Group, Percent of Total, 2017

  • In 2017, 30 percent of the nation’s full-time law enforcement employees were civilians.
  • Within the nation’s cities, 22.1 percent of full-time law enforcement employees were civilians.
  • The highest percentages of full-time civilian law enforcement employees were in nonmetropolitan counties (40.5 percent) and metropolitan counties (40.2 percent).