These police departments employed 2.3 sworn officers per 1,000 residents in 1987, compared to 2.4 in 1977. The number of sworn officers employed per square mile of land area served averaged 15 in 1987, down from 16 a decade earlier. During the same time period, the average rate of serious violent and property crimes increased 22 percent. Other findings include: all departments reported extensive use of computers and operation of special units for community crime prevention; full-time sworn officers worked an average of 78 hours of overtime; and, the departments required an average of nearly 1,100 hours of training for each new officer. An average of 9 percent of the full-time sworn officers were female, 14 percent were black, and 8 percent were Hispanic. 17 tables, 6 references.
Police Departments in Large Cities, 1987
NCJ Number
119220
Date Published
August 1989
Annotation
This document presents findings based on a survey of 59 general purpose municipal police departments in United States cities with a 1987 population of 250,000 or more.
Abstract
Date Published: August 1, 1989