U.S. Department of Justice Revised January 27, 2021 Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics October 2019, NCJ 252835 Bulletin Local Police Departments, 2016: Personnel Shelley S. Hyland, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Davis, BJS Statisticians s of June 30, 2016, the 15,322 general- FIGURE 1 purpose law enforcement agencies in Full-time employees in local police departments, the United States employed an estimated 1997-2016 A701,000 full-time sworn officers. Local police departments made up 80% (12,261) of these Number Civiliana 700,000 agencies and employed 67% (468,000) of these Sworn full-time sworn officers. 600,000 † From 1997 to 2016, the total number of 500,000 full-time sworn officers in general-purpose law enforcement agencies increased by 8%, while 400,000 the number of full-time sworn officers in local 300,000 police departments increased by 11% (figure 1, table 1). During the same period, the total 200,000 U.S. population increased by 21%, which resulted in the number of full-time sworn officers in 100,000 general-purpose law enforcement agencies 0 decreasing from 2.42 per 1,000 residents in 1997 2016*20132007200320001997 1 to 2.17 per 1,000 residents in 2016 (down 11%). Note: See table 1 for estimates and appendix table 2 for standard errors. General-purpose law enforcement agencies *Comparison group. include municipal, county, and regional police †Significant difference from comparison group at the 95% confidence level shown for total full-time employees. departments; most sheriffs’ offices; and primary aIncludes officers/deputies with limited or no arrest powers and non-sworn employees. 1 See Full-Time Employees in Law Enforcement Agencies, Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Law Enforcement 1997-2016 (NCJ 251762, BJS, August 2018). Management and Administrative Statistics survey, 1997-2016. HIGHLIGHTS Local police departments employed about About 1 in 8 local police officers, and about 468,000 full-time sworn officers in 2016. 1 in 10 first-line supervisors, were female. Of the 50 largest local police departments, about About 1 in 4 local police officers, and about two-thirds (33) had fewer full-time sworn officers 1 in 5 first-line supervisors, were black per 10,000 residents in 2016 than in 1997. or Hispanic. About 3% of all local police departments served The majority of departments serving 100,000 populations of 100,000 or more, and they or more residents had specialized units with employed about 52% of all full-time sworn police personnel assigned full-time to address child officers. abuse, drug enforcement, and gangs. More than two-thirds (71%) of local police An estimated 2.5% of full-time local police officers departments served populations of less than (11,870) served as school resource officers. 10,000 residents. state and highway patrol agencies. They do not include About two-thirds of full-time sworn officers in special-purpose agencies, sheriffs’ offices with only general-purpose agencies worked for local police jail and court duties, and federal law enforcement departments agencies. Full-time sworn officers are those with general arrest powers. In 2016, 1,050,000 full-time employees worked for general-purpose law enforcement agencies at the state, Findings in this report are based on the 2016 Law county, or local level (table 2).2 Of these full-time Enforcement Management and Administrative employees, 600,000 (57%) worked for local police Statistics (LEMAS) survey from the Bureau of Justice departments. The 468,000 full-time local police officers Statistics (BJS). Data were collected from a nationally nationwide accounted for two-thirds (67%) of all representative sample of general-purpose law full-time state and local sworn officers (701,000) working enforcement agencies. for general-purpose agencies. The 131,000 full-time civilian personnel in local police departments accounted TABLE 1 for 38% of all full-time civilian employees (349,000) Full-time employees in local police departments, working in general-purpose law enforcement agencies. 1997-2016 Local police departments also employed about 65,000 Year Total Sworn Civilian persons part-time. Among local police departments, 1997 531,313 † 419,996 † 111,317 † about 78% of full-time employees and 42% of part-time 2000 565,644 440,770 ‡ 124,874 employees were sworn officers. 2003 580,749 451,737 129,013 2 2007 601,027 463,147 137,880 For sheriffs’ offices estimates, see Sheriffs’ Offices, 2016: Personnel (NCJ 252834, BJS Web, October 2019). 2013 604,959 477,317 127,642 2016* 599,548 468,274 131,274 Note: See appendix table 2 for standard errors. *Comparison group. †Significant difference from comparison group at the 95% confidence level. ‡Significant difference from comparison group at the 90% confidence level. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, 1997-2016. TABLE 2 Personnel in general-purpose state and local law enforcement agencies, by type of agency, 2016 Number of Full-time employees Part-time employees Type of agency agencies Total Sworn Civiliana Total Sworn Civiliana Total 15,322 1,050,488 701,273 349,214 97,379 39,334 58,045 Local police 12,261 599,548 468,274 131,274 65,472 27,782 37,690 Sheriff’s officeb 3,012 359,843 173,354 186,489 30,511 11,377 19,135 Primary statec 49 91,097 59,645 31,452 1,395 175 1,220 Note: Counts are estimates as of June 30, 2016. Details may not sum to totals due to rounding. See appendix table 3 for standard errors. aIncludes officers/deputies with limited or no arrest powers and non-sworn employees. bExcludes sheriffs’ offices with only jail and court duties. cHawaii does not have a primary state law enforcement agency. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, 2016. LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS, 2016: PERSONNEL | OCTOBER 2019 2 About half of all local police departments employed In 2016, a total of 624 local police departments had less than the equivalent of 10 officers 100 or more full-time sworn officers. These departments employed 62% of all full-time officers nationwide. This In 2016, following historical trends, about half (48%) was similar to 1997, when 541 departments employed of all local police departments employed less than the 100 or more full-time sworn officers, which represented 3 equivalent of 10 full-time sworn officers (table 3). An 61% of all full-time sworn officers.4 additional 27% of local police departments employed the equivalent of 10 to 24 full-time sworn officers. These The New York City Police Department remained three-quarters (75%) of departments that employed the largest local police department in 2016, as its less than the equivalent of 25 full-time sworn officers 36,008 full-time sworn officers were more than three employed about 14% of all full-time sworn local times the number employed by any other department. police officers. The second largest department was the Chicago Police Department, which had 11,965 full-time sworn officers. 3 The number of full-time-equivalent sworn officers is the number (See appendix table 1.) of officers plus half the number of part-time sworn officers (who are counted as 0.5 full-time equivalents). 4See Local Police Departments 1997 (NCJ 173429, BJS, February 2000). TABLE 3 Local police departments and full-time employees, by size of agency, 2016 Departments Full-time sworn officers Full-time civilian personnelb Size of agencya Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent All departments 12,261 100% 468,274 100% 131,274 100% 1,000 or more full-time- equivalent sworn officersa 45 0.4 153,438 32.8 46,127 35.1 500-999 53 0.4 37,738 8.1 10,313 7.9 250-499 101 0.8 34,634 7.4 11,036 8.4 100-249 425 3.5 62,782 13.4 19,833 15.1 50-99 845 6.9 57,398 12.3 16,854 12.8 25-49 1,587 12.9 54,677 11.7 13,762 10.5 10-24 3,358 27.4 47,083 10.1 10,549 8.0 5-9 2,875 23.4 15,219 3.3 2,140 1.6 2-4 2,203 18.0 4,653 1.0 569 0.4 1 770 6.3 652 0.1 91 <0.1 Note: Details may not sum to totals due to rounding. See appendix table 4 for standard errors. aSize of agency is based on the number of full-time sworn officers plus half the number of part-time sworn officers (who are counted as the equivalent of 0.5 full-time sworn officers). bIncludes officers/deputies with limited or no arrest powers and non-sworn employees. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, 2016. LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS, 2016: PERSONNEL | OCTOBER 2019 3 Revised January 27, 2021 Half of local police officers were employed in FIGURE 2 jurisdictions with 100,000 or more residents Average number of full-time-equivalent sworn local police officers per 1 000 residents by size of population The distribution of local police departments by , , served, 2016 population served was similar to their distribution by department size. In 2016, an estimated 8,700 Population served departments (71%) served less than 10,000 residents 1,000,000 or more † (table 4). Less than 3% of departments served 100,000 500 000-999 999 † or more residents, but these departments employed , , about half (52%) of all officers. This was similar to 1997, 250,000-499,999 † where 2% of local police departments served 100,000 or 100,000-249,999* more residents and those departments employed 51% of 50,000-99,999 all officers.