Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 1996 June 1998, NCJ-164618 Revised 7/9/98 th U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs By Brian A. Reaves, Ph.D. and Andrew L. Goldberg BJS Statisticians This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all in the series go to http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pubalp2.htm#csllea. -------------------------------------------------- Highlights Highlight figure, page 1. Full-time sworn employees in State and local law enforcement agencies, 1992 and 1996 Number of full-time sworn personnel --------------------------------------- Type 1996 1992 of agency -------------------------------------------------------------- All State and local 663,535 608,113 Local police 410,956 374,524 Sheriff 152,922 136,592 * As of June 1996, nearly 19,000 State and local agencies employed at least 1 sworn officer with general arrest powers. Overall, these agencies had 921,978 full-time employees, including 663,535 sworn personnel. * Nationwide, the number of State and local full-time sworn personnel in June 1996 was 9% greater than in June 1992. There were 25 sworn and 10 nonsworn employees for every 10,000 U.S. residents in 1996, up from 24 and 9 per 10,000 in 1992. * In 1996, 64%, or 423,000, of State and local sworn personnel were uniformed officers whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service. These represented increases compared to the estimates of 59% and 356,000 for 1992. * About 15% of sworn personnel in 1996 were responsible for crime investigation. Other law enforcement duties included those related to administration, training, and technical support. About 8% of sworn personnel primarily performed jail-related duties, and 3% court-related duties. * Seventy agencies employed 1,000 or more full-time sworn personnel, including 41 local police, 15 State police, 12 sheriffs', and 2 special police agencies. In contrast, 2,245 agencies had just 1 full-time officer, and 1,164 relied solely on part-time officers. * The Nation's largest law enforcement agency, the New York City Police Department, had about 44,000 full-time employees in 1996, including 36,813 full-time sworn officers. -------------------------------------------------- As of June 1996, State and local governments in the United States operated 18,769 law enforcement agencies that employed at least 1 full-time or part-time sworn officer with general arrest powers. The total included 13,578 general purpose local police departments, 3,088 sheriffs' departments and offices, 49 primary State law enforcement agencies, 1,316 State and local agencies with a special geographic jurisdiction or special enforcement responsibilities, and 738 county constable offices in Texas. Overall, State and local law enforcement agencies employed 921,978 persons on a full-time basis. There were 663,535 full-time sworn officers (72%) with general arrest powers and 258,443 nonsworn or civilian personnel (28%). These agencies also had on their payrolls 97,770 part-time employees, including 47,712 part-time sworn officers. These findings resulted from the 1996 Directory Survey, a census of the Nation's State and local law enforcement agencies sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). --------------------------- The BJS Directory Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies --------------------------- To ensure an accurate sampling frame for its Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, the Bureau of Justice Statistics periodically sponsors a census of the Nation's State and local law enforcement agencies. This census, known as the Directory Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies, includes State and local agencies employing one or more persons with general arrest powers. This report summarizes the findings from the most recent Directory Survey, begun in 1996. As in 1992, the Directory Survey in 1996 collected data on the number of sworn and nonsworn personnel, including both full-time and part-time employees. Data were provided by all 18,769 agencies that were known to have employed sworn personnel at the time of the census. The reference period for all data is the pay period that included June 28, 1996. Number of State and local law enforcement agencies, 1996 Total 18,769 Local police 13,578 Sheriff 3,088 Primary State police 49 Special police 1,316 Texas constable 738 --------------------------------------------------- State and local law enforcement agencies --------------------------------------------------- By type of agency, general purpose local police departments were the largest employer with 521,985 full-time employees as of June 1996 (table 1). Of this total, 410,956, or 79%, were sworn personnel with general arrest powers. Sheriffs' departments and offices accounted for 257,712 full-time employees, of which 152,922 (59%) were sworn officers. TABLE 1 The 49 primary State law enforcement agencies operating in each State except Hawaii employed 83,742 persons full-time. Of these employees, 54,587, or 65%, were full-time sworn officers. Special police agencies, those serving a special geographic jurisdiction or with special enforcement responsibilities, employed 43,082 full-time sworn personnel and had 56,229 full- time employees overall. (See table 14 for breakdown of special police agencies by type.) The 738 Texas county constable offices operating in June 1996 employed approximately 2,000 full-time sworn officers in June 1996. From June 1992 to June 1996, the number of full-time State and local law enforcement employees in the United States increased about 75,400, or 8.9% (figure 1). The number of full-time sworn personnel was up about 55,400, a 9.1% increase. Civilian employment was up about 20,100, or 8.4%. Figure 1, page 2. Full-time employees in State and local law enforcement agencies, 1992 and 1996 Number of full-time personnel Type of employee 1996 1992 -------------------------------------------------------------- Total 921,978 846,501 Sworn 663,535 608,113 Nonsworn 258,443 238,388 In 1996 there were 35 full-time State and local law enforcement employees per 10,000 residents nationwide, including 25 sworn officers. These ratios were slightly higher than in 1992 when there were 33 full-time employees per 10,000 residents, including 24 sworn officers. Full-time State and local law enforcement employees per 10,000 residents ------------------ 1996 1992 -------------------------------------- Total 35 33 Sworn 25 24 Civilian nonsworn 10 9 Functions of State and local sworn personnel --------------------------------------------------- Overall, about 423,000, or 63.7%, of full-time State and local sworn employees were patrol officers or other uniformed personnel whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service (figure 2). (See Methodological note on page 14.) Figure 2, page 3. Selected areas of duty for full-time sworn personnel in State and local law enforcement agencies, 1996 Percent of full-time Duty area sworn personnel ------------------------------------------------ Patrol/response 63.7% Investigations 15.0 Jail operations 7.7 Court operations 3.4 Fifteen percent of full-time sworn personnel were assigned to investigative duties. Other law enforcement duties (not broken down here) included those related to administration, training, and technical support. Approximately 1 in 9 full-time State and local sworn personnel primarily performed duties related to jail (7.7%) or court (3.4%) operations. Size of agencies --------------------------------------------------- Of the 18,769 State and local law enforcement agencies operating as of June 1996, 942, or 5%, employed 100 or more full-time sworn personnel (table 2). This category included 70 agencies with 1,000 or more sworn officers. TABLE 2 The majority of agencies employed fewer than 10 full-time officers, and about 3 in 8 agencies, more than 7,000 in all, employed fewer than 5 full-time officers. These smaller agencies included 2,245, or 12%, with just 1 full-time officer and 1,164, or 6%, with only part-time officers. Although State and local agencies with 100 or more full-time sworn officers accounted for just 5% of all agencies, they employed 63% of all State and local full-time sworn personnel (table 3). The 70 agencies with 1,000 or more officers accounted for about 204,500, or 31%, of all full-time sworn personnel. TABLE 3 The 70 largest State and local agencies rarely used part-time sworn personnel, accounting for just 2% of all part-time sworn officers nationwide. About half of part-time sworn officers were employed by agencies with fewer than 10 full-time officers, and about two-thirds worked for agencies with fewer than 25 full-time officers. State-by-State comparisons --------------------------------------------------- Texas had the most State and local agencies employing sworn personnel of any State (table 4). The total of 1,861 included 738 county constable offices (see box on page 13). Pennsylvania (1,298) had the next highest number of agencies, followed by Illinois (963) and Ohio (938). TABLE 4 California had the most full-time State and local law enforcement employees, about 104,000. Other States with more than 50,000 such employees included New York (88,348), Texas (73,112), Florida (60,808), and Illinois (50,255). Vermont (1,336), North Dakota (1,537), and Alaska (1,884) had the fewest. Outside the District of Columbia (86), New York had the most full-time State and local law enforcement agency employees per capita, with 49 per 10,000 residents. Other States with 40 or more employees per 10,000 residents included Louisiana (46), Wyoming (45), New Jersey (44), Illinois (42), Florida (42), and Massachusetts (40). West Virginia and Kentucky, with 22 per 10,000, had the fewest State and local law enforcement employees per capita. New York (71,221) had slightly more full-time sworn personnel employed by State and local agencies than California (69,134). These States were followed by Texas (47,767), Illinois (38,192), and Florida (37,395). Vermont (981) was the only State where there were fewer than 1,000 State and local sworn officers. After the District of Columbia (72), the ratio of full-time sworn personnel per 10,000 residents was highest in New York (39). The next highest ratios were found in Louisiana (37), New Jersey (35), and Illinois (32). West Virginia (16) had the fewest sworn officers per 10,000 residents, followed by Kentucky, Minnesota, Vermont, and Washington, all with 17. Nationwide there were 35 full-time State and local law enforcement employees per 10,000 residents, including 25 sworn officers. By State, the medians were 32 and 23, respectively. --------------------------------------------------- Local police departments --------------------------------------------------- As of June 1996, there were 13,578 general purpose local police departments operating in the United States. Municipal governments operated the vast majority of these agencies. The remainder were county, tribal, or regional (multi-jurisdictional) police. Number Types of ----------------------------------- general purpose Full-time local police, 1996 Agencies officers ------------------------------------------------------------------ Municipal 13353 385425 County 55 23450 Tribal 135 1731 Regional 35 350 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Note: Tribal category excludes agencies operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a Federal agency that provides law en- forcement services in some tribal areas. Compared with June 1992, full-time employment by local police departments was up by about 43,400, or 9.1%, as of June 1996 (figure 3). The number of full-time sworn officers increased by about 36,400 officers, or 9.7%, during this time. The number of civilian local police employees rose by about 7,000, or 6.7%. Figure 3, page 5. Full-time employees in local departments, 1992 and 1996 Number of Type full-time personnel of employee 1996 1992 -------------------------------------------------- Total 521,985 478,586 Sworn 410,956 374,524 Nonsworn 111,029 104,062 Size of local police departments --------------------------------------------------- Just 4% of local police departments employed 100 or more full-time sworn personnel (table 5). Included in these larger agencies were 41 with 1,000 or more officers. In contrast, about 3 in 5 departments employed fewer than 10 full-time officers (61.5%). Included among these 8,353 smaller agencies were 1,657 (12.2% of all local police departments) that employed only 1 full-time officer, and 1,022(7.5%) that relied solely on part-time officers. TABLE 5 Agencies with fewer than 10 full-time officers employed about 7% of all full-time local police officers (table 6). Nearly half of all full-time local police officers worked in an agency with 250 or more officers (47.8%), and about three-fifths worked for an agency with at least 100 officers (60.2%). TABLE 6 The 41 departments with 1,000 or more officers employed about a third of all local police officers. These agencies employed less than 1% of all part-time sworn personnel, but did account for 22% of part-time civilian personnel. Functions of local police officers --------------------------------------------------- About 70%, or 286,000, of full-time sworn local police personnel were uniformed officers on patrol or otherwise regularly assigned to respond to calls for service (figure 4). Figure 4, page 6. Selected areas of duty for full-time sworn personnel in local police departments, 1996 Percent of full-time Duty area sworn personnel ------------------------------------------------ Patrol/response 69.6% Investigations 16.2 Jail operations 0.9 Court operations 0.9 Sixteen percent of full-time sworn personnel primarily performed investigative duties. Including personnel in other functional areas such as administration, training, and technical support with those responding to calls and investigating crimes, nearly all local police officers were working in the area of law enforcement operations. Only about 2% were regularly assigned to jail-related (0.9%) or court-related (0.9%) duties. The largest local police departments --------------------------------------------------- As of June 1996, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) was the Nation's largest local police department --and its largest law enforcement agency of any kind --with 43,976 full-time employees, including 36,813 sworn officers (table 7). The next largest local police force -- the Chicago Police Department -- employed 13,237 full-time sworn officers. Other cities with police forces of more than 5,000 full-time officers included Los Angeles (8,998), Philadelphia (6,398), and Houston (5,298). In 1996 about 1 in 11 full-time local police officers nationwide worked for the NYPD, and about 1 in 6 worked for one of the five largest forces. TABLE 7 The largest county police departments in the United States included the Nassau County (NY) Police with 3,009 full-time officers, the Metro-Dade (FL) Police with 2,825 officers, and the Suffolk County (NY) Police with 2,744 officers. From June 1992 to June 1996, the NYPD reported the largest change in size of any State or local law enforcement agency. During this time the Nation's largest police force expanded by 8,001 officers, or 27.8%. The incorporation of the city's formerly independent transit and housing police forces into the NYPD force accounted for much of the increase. When the officers employed by those two former agencies are accounted for, the net increase was 1,111 officers, or 3.1%. Other municipal police departments with an increase of more than 20% in the number of full-time officers from June 1992 to June 1996 included those in El Paso (24.4%), Houston (24.3%), Phoenix (22.1%), and Fort Worth (21.2%). Seven of the fifty largest local police agencies reported a decrease in the number of full-time officers from 1992 to 1996. The largest decrease was in Washington, D.C., where the Metropolitan Police Department went from 4,889 officers to 3,587 officers, a decrease of 26.6%. The New Orleans Police Department, with a decline of 12.7%, experienced the next largest decrease in employment. State-by-State comparisons --------------------------------------------------- As of June 1996, Pennsylvania had the most general purpose local police departments of any State (1,141), followed by Illinois (809), Ohio (808), and Texas (735) (table 8). Other States with more than 400 local police departments included Missouri (509), New Jersey (487), New York (476), Michigan (475), Wisconsin (471), and Indiana (432). Excluding the District of Columbia, Hawaii (4) had the fewest local police departments, followed by Nevada (26). TABLE 8 Local police departments in the State of New York had 65,854 full-time employees, more than any other State. California was second with 50,491. The other States with more than 25,000 full-time local police employees were Texas (37,472), Illinois (32,522), and Florida (28,075). Four States had fewer than 1,000 full-time local police employees: North Dakota (686), Vermont (700), Wyoming (822), and Montana (886). Outside the District of Columbia (78), New York ranked highest among the States in terms of local police employees per 10,000 residents, with 36. Other States with 25 or more local police employees per 10,000 residents included New Jersey (30), Hawaii (29), Illinois (27), Rhode Island (26), and Massachusetts (25). New York (54,657) was the only State with more than 50,000 full-time local police officers. California ranked second with 35,939 officers. The other States with more than 15,000 full-time local police officers were Texas (28,269), Illinois (26,151), New Jersey (19,891), Florida (19,652), Pennsylvania (17,655), and Ohio (15,932). In terms of full-time sworn local police officers per 10,000 residents, New York (30) was again second only to the District of Columbia (66). Other States with 20 or more local police officers per 10,000 residents included New Jersey (25), Hawaii (23), Illinois (22), Massachusetts (21), Connecticut (20), and Rhode Island (20). --------------------------------------------------- Sheriffs' departments and offices --------------------------------------------------- In June 1996, sheriffs' departments and offices had about 32,300 more full-time employees than in 1992, an increase of 14.3% (figure 5). This included an increase of about 16,300, or 12%, in sworn personnel, and an increase of about 16,000, or 18%, in nonsworn employees. Figure 5, page 8. Full-time employees in sheriffs' departments, 1992 and 1996 Number of Type full-time personnel of employee 1996 1992 ------------------------------------------------ Total 257,712 225,404 Sworn 152,922 136,592 Nonsworn 104,790 88,812 These increases, which are larger than those for local police, were influenced to some extent by the fact that about 4 in 5 sheriffs' departments are responsible for jail operations. The Nation's jail inmate population increased 16.6% from June 1992 to June 1996. (See the BJS Bulletin, Jails and Jail Inmates 1993-94, NCJ-151651). Size of sheriffs' departments --------------------------------------------------- Of the 3,088 independent sheriffs' departments and offices operating nationwide as of June 1996, nearly 300 (9.6%) employed at least 100 full-time sworn personnel (table 9). The category of larger agencies included 12 with 1,000 or more sworn personnel. TABLE 9 About 3 in 8 sheriffs' departments (36.8%) employed fewer than 10 full-time officers. Forty agencies (1.3%) employed just 1 full-time officer, and 7 (0.2%) had only part-time officers. The 12 sheriffs' departments and offices employing 1,000 or more sworn personnel accounted for about 16% of full-time sheriffs' employees nationwide, including about 18% of full-time sworn personnel (table 10). About 61% of all full-time sheriffs' employees worked for an agency with at least 100 employees, including 63% of all sworn personnel. TABLE 10 Functions of sheriffs' officers --------------------------------------------------- Overall, approximately 42%, or 65,000, of the full-time sworn personnel employed by sheriffs' departments were patrol officers and other uniformed personnel whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service (figure 6). Another 12% were assigned to investigative duties. Figure 6, page 9. Selected areas of duty for full-time sworn personnel in sheriffs' departments, 1996 Percent of full-time Duty area sworn personnel ----------------------------------------------- Patrol/response 42.3% Investigations 12.0 Jail operations 30.3 Court operations 11.0 Of the 3,081 sheriffs' departments employing full-time sworn personnel, 96% had at least 1 officer assigned to handle calls for service as part of their regular duties. In addition to handling calls for service, most sheriffs' departments are responsible for functions related to jail and court operations. While about four-fifths of sheriffs' departments operate 1 or more jails, nearly all have court-related responsibilities such as the serving of process (97%) and court security (93%) (see the BJS Bulletin, Sheriffs' Departments, 1993 NCJ-148823). In 1996, 30% of full-time sheriffs' officers were assigned to jail-related duties, while 11% primarily performed court-related duties. The largest sheriffs' departments --------------------------------------------------- The largest sheriff's department in the Nation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, employed 8,014 full-time sworn personnel as of June 1996 (table 11). About two-fifths of that agency's full-time sworn personnel had regularly assigned duties that included responding to calls for service (41%). Thirteen percent of the full-time officers primarily investigated crimes. Nearly half were assigned to jail (28%) or court (19%) operations. TABLE 11 The second largest sheriff's department, with 5,309 full-time sworn personnel, was operated by the Cook County Sheriff in Illinois. Nearly all of the officers in that agency were assigned to duties related to jail (58%)or court (32%) operations. Overall, 6 of the 10 largest sheriffs' departments were in California. All six of these agencies reported that more than a fourth of their deputies had work assignments that regularly included responding to calls for service. All six also had a significant percentage assigned to jail-related duties. Overall, 10 of the 25 largest sheriffs' departments had more full-time sworn personnel assigned to law enforcement duties such as responding to calls for service and investigating crimes than to jail and court operations. All but one of the other 15 agencies had the largest portion of their officers assigned to jail-related duties. Three agencies reported that responding to calls for service was not a regular work assignment for any of their deputies. State-by-State comparisons Of the 3,143 county-equivalent entities in the U.S., 3,097 are served by a sheriff. There are no sheriffs in the 27 boroughs of Alaska, the District of Columbia, the 5 counties of Hawaii, 1 county in Kansas, the Yellowstone National Park area of Montana, and 11 of the 41 independent cities in Virginia. The five counties that make up New York City are served by one sheriff. In five counties (Clark, NV; Dade, FL; Duval, FL; Deer Lodge, MT; and Westchester, NY), the sheriff's office has been consolidated with the local police department. These agencies are classified as local police for the Directory Survey. As a result there were 3,088 independent sheriffs' departments and offices as of June 1996. Except for a few who are appointed, sheriffs are elected officials. Texas (254) has the most sheriffs; however, California (38,603) had the most full-time sheriffs' employees in 1996 (table 12). Florida (27,928) and Texas (21,548) were next. Other States with 10,000 or more full-time sheriffs' employees included Illinois (12,212) Louisiana (10,652), Georgia (10,537), and New York (10,150). TABLE 12 Louisiana had the most sheriffs' employees per capita with 24 per 10,000 residents. Next highest were Florida and Wyoming with 19 each. Nationwide, there were 10 full-time sheriffs' employees per 10,000 residents. Sheriffs' departments in California (22,869) employed the most full-time sworn officers, followed by those in Florida (14,124) and Texas (11,326). Other States with 5,000 or more full-time sheriffs' officers included Louisiana (8,720), Illinois (8,426), Georgia (6,752), Virginia (6,605), New York (5,852), North Carolina (5,264), and Ohio (5,179). There were 6 full-time sworn sheriffs' officers per 10,000 residents nationwide. Louisiana, with 20 per 10,000, had the most sheriffs' officers per capita, followed by Wyoming (11), Florida (10), and Virginia (10). --------------------------------------------------- Primary State law enforcement agencies --------------------------------------------------- In June 1996 the 49 primary State law enforcement agencies operating in each State except Hawaii employed 83,742 persons on a full-time basis. The total was about 5,200, or 6.6%, more than in June 1992 (figure 7). There were 54,587 full-time sworn officers, an increase of about 1,600, or 3%. Figure 7, page 11. Full-time employees in the 49 primary State law enforcement agencies, 1992 and 1996 Type Number of of employee full-time personnel 1996 1992 -------------------------------------------- Total 83,742 78,570 Sworn 54,587 52,980 Nonsworn 29,155 25,590 In 1996, 69% of the full-time sworn personnel in the 49 primary State law enforcement agencies were uniformed officers whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service. Fifteen percent were primarily investigators, and 2% were assigned to court-related duties. Fifteen of the 49 primary State law enforcement agencies employed 1,000 or more full-time sworn officers, and 32 employed at least 500 such officers. Primary State law enforcement agencies, by number of full-time sworn personnel, June 1996 Agencies --------------------------- Number Percent ---------------------------------------------------------- All sizes 49 100% 1,000 or more officers 15 30.6% 500-999 17 34.7 250-499 10 20.4 100-249 7 14.3 The largest State law enforcement agency, the California Highway Patrol, had 9,132 full-time employees including 6,219 full-time sworn officers (table 13). The next largest agencies were the Texas Department of Public Safety (6,745 and 2,873) and the Pennsylvania State Police (5,301 and 4,114). The smallest agencies were the North Dakota Highway Patrol with 186 full-time employees, including 120 sworn officers, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol, with 229 full-time employees, 155 of whom were sworn officers. TABLE 13 --------------------------------------------------- Special police agencies --------------------------------------------------- More than 1,300 State and local law enforcement agencies with special geographic jurisdictions or special enforcement responsibilities were operating in the United States as of June 1996. These special police agencies employed approximately 43,000 full-time sworn officers --6.5% of all State and local officers. This included 20 agencies operated by tribal governments employing 116 officers. TABLE 14 More than three-fourths of these full-time sworn personnel were uniformed personnel whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service (78%). About 15% were investigators, and just over 1% primarily performed court-related duties. The more than 10,000 full-time police officers serving public colleges and universities nationwide accounted for a fourth of all special police officers (table 14). (For more information, see the BJS report Campus Law Enforcement Agencies, 1995, NCJ-161137.) Agencies enforcing laws related to natural resources and conservation accounted for the next largest group of officers (8,395). Public school districts were the third largest employer of special police officers (5,247). More than half (2,899) were employed by the New York City Public School system, the largest single employer of special police officers in the Nation (table 16). TABLE 15 Agencies serving transportation systems and facilities were the next largest employer of sworn officers (4,274). The Port Authority of New York-New Jersey, with 1,350 officers, operated the largest of these forces. The Port Authority Police have a wide range of jurisdiction, including the LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark Airports, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the George Washington and Staten Island Bridges, the PATH train system, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, and the World Trade Center. Like the Port Authority Police, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police also have multiple types of jurisdictions related to transportation including bridges, tunnels, roadways, and the BWI Airport. Most of the other agencies in the category provide police services for a single mass transit system or commuter railroad. Other types of agencies that collectively employed 500 or more full-time sworn personnel included parks and recreation police (2,595), investigative agencies (2,515), airport police (2,407), marine police (1,291), public housing police (1,245), State alcoholic beverage control agencies (1,199), State capitol police (988), and medical facility police (894). State-by State comparisons --------------------------------------------------- Texas, with 133, had the most State or local-level special police agencies, followed by California with 121 (table 16). Other States with 50 or more special police agencies included Pennsylvania (89), New York (64), and Illinois (51). TABLE 16 About a third of the 56,229 special police agency employees nationwide were located in the States of New York (7,681). California (5,741) and Texas (5,037). Other States with 2,000 or more such employees included (New Jersey (3,016), Florida (2,598), Maryland (2,498), and Pennsylvania (2,182). Vermont (66), New Hampshire (90), and Oregon (99) were the only States with fewer than 100 full-time special police employees. New York, with 6,740, had the most full-time sworn special police officers, followed by California (4,107) and Texas (3,311). Seven other States had 1,000 or more: New Jersey (2,320), Florida (1,879), Pennsylvania (1,865), Maryland (1,842), Illinois (1,627), Ohio (1,309), Virginia (1,270), and Georgia (1,244). States with fewer than 100 full-time special police officers included Vermont (56), New Hampshire (69), Oregon (74), and North Dakota (96). The District of Columbia had the most special police employees (8) and special police officers (6) per 10,000 residents. Alaska and Maryland, with 5 per 10,000 residents, were next highest in terms of overall special police employment. These two States and New York had about 4 full-time sworn special police officers per 10,000 residents. --------------------------------------------------- Texas constable offices Of the approximately 760 county constable offices in Texas, 738 employed sworn personnel as of June 1996. Texas constables are elected officials who are responsible for serving process out of the justice, county, and district courts. About third of constable offices, including a majority of those with five or more full-time sworn personnel, also performed law enforcement functions. Overall, about half of the sworn personnel employed by constable offices responded to calls for service as part of their regularly assigned duties, and about a third primarily handled court-related duties. --------------------------------------------------- Methodological note --------------------------------------------------- The category of patrol/response used in figure 2, figure 4, figure 6, and table 11 includes all full-time uniformed officers whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service. While this definition includes all patrol officers, it also includes additional personnel who respond to calls as needed. Data for this category cover all agencies employing full-time sworn personnel, regardless of size. Data on the number of full-time sworn personnel whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service were not collected in the 1992 Directory Survey. To estimate such numbers for comparison with those collected in the 1996 Directory Survey, percentages based on the 1993 LEMAS survey were applied to the 1992 data. Total Uniformed officers number of whose regularly full-time assigned duties sworn included responding personnel to calls for service ------------------------------------ Number Percent ------------------------------------------------------------ 1996 663,535 422,922 63.7% 1992 608,113 356,354 58.6* Change 58,707 68,568 -- --Not calculated. *From 1993 LEMAS survey The categories of investigations, court operations, and jail operations include only those full-time sworn personnel whose primary duties are in one of these areas. In some agencies, some of the officers with these primary duties may have also been assigned to respond to calls for service. To minimize this overlap, the data for these primary duty categories exclude local police, sheriffs', and special police agencies with fewer than 10 full-time sworn personnel. The above categories do not account for all full-time sworn personnel because some may be assigned to other functional areas such as administration, training, or technical support. --------------------------------------------------- Data for graphical figures --------------------------------------------------- The 1992 data used for comparisons reflect changes in the scope and methodology of the BJS Directory of Law Enforcement Agencies occurring since the 1992 survey. Some of the numbers presented here are different from those published in the BJS Bulletin, Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 1992 (NCJ 142972). TEXT TABLE 5-12 --------------------------------------------------- Data from the 1996 Directory Survey of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (ICPSR 2260) can be obtained from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data at the University of Michigan, 1-800-999-0960. The archive, as well as the report and other criminal justice information, can be found through or at the BJS Internet Web site: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Jan M. Chaiken, Ph.D., is director. BJS Bulletins present the first release of findings from permanent data collection programs such as the Directory Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies. Brian A. Reaves, Ph.D., and Andrew L. Goldberg wrote this report. Timothy C. Hart provided statistical review. Tom Hester and Tina Dorsey edited the report. Marilyn Marbrook, assisted by Yvonne Boston, administered final production. Data collection and processing were performed by the Governments Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census. BJS staff assisted with the identification of agencies to be included. Census Bureau work was directed by Carolyn Gates under the supervision of Stephanie Brown. Staff included Martha Greene, Martha Haselbush, Henrietta Herrin, and Patricia Torreyson. June 1998, NCJ 164618 --------------------------------------------------- END OF FILE LD 6/3/98 th 7/7/98