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Crime & Justice Electronic Data Abstracts

Law Enforcement Statistics

Federal Law Enforcement
State and Local Law Enforcement
Campus Law Enforcement

See Data Online for Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics for State and large local agencies.

Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted reports are available from the FBI.

Additional information on trends in law enforcement officers killed is available from Homicide Trends in the United States, a section of the BJS web site which outlines patterns and trends in homicide since 1976.


Summary findings

In 2000 there were nearly 800,000 full-time sworn law enforcement officers in the United States

Type of agency Number of agencies Number of full-time
sworn officers

Total 796,518  
All State and local 17,784 708,022  
Local police 12,666 440,920  
Sheriff 3,070 164,711  
Primary State 49 56,348  
Special jurisdiction 1,376 43,413  
Texas constable 623 2,630  
Federal* 88,496  
Note: Special jurisdiction category includes both State-level and local-level agencies. Consolidated police-sheriffs are included under local police category. Agency counts exclude those operating on a part-time basis.
*Non-military federal officers authorized to carry firearms and make arrests.

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BJS Law enforcement data collections

Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), conducted every 3 to 4 years, collects data from over 3,000 State and local law enforcement agencies, including all those that employ 100 or more sworn officers and a nationally representative sample of smaller agencies. Data are obtained on the organization and administration of police and sheriffs' departments including agency responsibilities, operating expenditures, job functions of sworn and civilian employees, officer salaries and special pay, demographic characteristics of officers, weapons and armor policies, education and training requirements, computers and information systems, vehicles, special units, and community policing activities.
1987, 1990, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003.

2003 Sample Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies (CJ-44) (77K)
     1999 version | 1997 version

2000 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CJ-38L), Acrobat file (91K)

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Codebooks and Datasets

Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies provides data on all State and local law enforcement agencies operating nationwide. Data collected include the number of sworn and civilian personnel by State and type of agency.
1992, 1996, 2000.

2000 questionnaire (CJ-38S), Acrobat file (43K)

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Codebooks and Datasets

Survey of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies, provides data describing nearly 600 campus law enforcement agencies serving U.S. 4-year universities or colleges with 2,500 or more students. Data are collected on agency personnel, expenditures and pay, operations, equipment, computers and information systems, policies, and special programs.
1995

Codebooks and Datasets

Federal Law Enforcement Agency Census provides national data on Federal law enforcement agencies with arrest and firearms authority. Data collected include the number of officers working in the areas of criminal investigation and enforcement, police patrol and response, security and protection, court operations, and corrections, by agency and State.
1993, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004.

Codebooks and Datasets

Police Public Contact Survey represents a second stage in the development of a recurring statistical collection on citizen contact with the police. The Police Public Contact Survey was designed to address the mandate set forth by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to collect, evaluate, and publish data on the use of excessive force by law enforcement personnel. Between July 1, 1999 and December 31, 1999, BJS conducted the nationwide police public contact survey of approximately 90,000 persons aged 16 or older to learn about their contacts with the police utilizing an updated and improved version of the instrument field-tested in May 1996. Results of the first pilot test were reported in Police Use of Force: Collection of National Data, November 1997, NCJ 165040. The 1999 questionnaire captures more detailed information about the nature of the police citizen contact, respondent perceptions as to whether any force encountered was excessive, and any provocative actions which may have been initiated by the respondent during the encounter with police. In addition, the instrument includes a new section designed to gather information on police-initiated stops for routine traffic violations.

Police Public Contact Survey questionnaire: Acrobat file (169K)

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State Police Traffic Stop Data Collection Procedures collected data from the Nation's 49 State law enforcement agencies with traffic patrol responsibility about their policies for recording race and ethnicity data for persons in traffic stops. The questionnaire, mailed out in March 2001, obtained basic information on the circumstances under which demographic data were collected for traffic-related stops and whether this information was stored in an electronically accessible format. The data collection was not designed to obtain available agency databases containing traffic-stop records.
1999, 2001, 2004

SSP-1 questionnaire, Acrobat file (52K)

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Survey of DNA Crime Laboratories provides national data on publicly operated forensic crime laboratories that perform DNA analyses. Data collected include personnel, budgets and expenditures, workloads, equipment, procedures and policies, and data processing.
1999, 2001

2001 questionnaire, Acrobat file (87K)

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The Census of Law Enforcement Training Academies obtained information on the number and types of staff employed at training facilities, budget, sources of funds, number of officers trained, and policies and practices. In addition to basic organizational data, the survey collected information on training curriculum issues critical to current law enforcement policy development.
2002

2002 questionnaire, Acrobat file (273K)

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The Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories collects data on staff, budgets, operating procedures, case workloads, training, and resource needs from among the Nation's more than 300 crime labs. This Bureau of Justice Statistics census represents the first national census of crime labs. Census information will be used to better understand the number of cases processed by these labs and the amount of resources required to meet the increased demand for forensic services. In developing and implementing this census, BJS worked closely with the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLAD).
2002

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Also by BJS staff

Langan, Patrick A. and Matthew R. Durose (BJS statisticians) The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City, (Paper presented at the International Conference on Crime, Rome, Italy, December 2003)

Hickman, Matthew J. (BJS statistician); Alex R. Piquero, and Jack R, Greene, eds., Police Integrity and Ethics, [Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Group, 2004]

See articles from Police Integrity and Ethics:

Hickman, Matthew J. (BJS statistician); Alex R. Piquero, and Jack R, Greene "Police Integrity: Exploring the Utility of a Risk Factor Model."

Smith, Steven K. (BJS statistician); "Citizen Behavior and Police Use of Force: An Examination of National Survey Data."

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Related sites

See the subtopic pages for additional links

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Page last revised on August 15, 2006