U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

------------------------------------------------------

This file is text only without graphics and many of 
the tables. A Zip archive of the tables in this report 
inspreadsheet format (.csv) and the full report 
includingtables and graphics in .pdf format are 
available on BJSwebsite 
at:http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5279

This reports is one in series. More recent editions 
may be available. To view a list of all reports in the 
series go to http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbse&sid=35
------------------------------------------------------
 
Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and 
Practices

Brian A. Reaves, Ph.D., BJS Statistician

Highlights

Local police departments employed about 477,000 full-
time sworn personnel in 2013, 35% more than in 1987.

About half (48%) of departments employed fewer than 10 
officers.

More than half (54%) of local police officers were 
employed in jurisdictions with 100,000 or more 
residents.

About 1 in 8 local police officers were female, 
including about 1 in 10 first-line supervisors.

About 27% of local police officers were members of a 
racial or ethnic minority, compared to 15% in 1987.

From 2007 to 2013, the number of Hispanic or Latino 
local police officers increased by 16%.

Departments in larger jurisdictions were more diverse 
than those in smaller ones, but diversity has increased 
in all population categories since 1987.

Nearly 1 in 4 local police officers worked for a 
department that required entry-level officers to have at 
least a 2-year college degree.

A majority of departments serving 25,000 or more 
residents maintained problem-solving partnerships or 
agreements with local organizations. 

Most departments with 100 or more officers had full-time 
specialized units to address child abuse, juvenile 
crime, gangs, and domestic violence.


As of January 1, 2013, the more than 12,000 local police 
departments in the United States employed an estimated 
605,000 persons on a full-time basis (figure 1). This 
total included about 477,000 sworn officers (those with 
general arrest powers) and about 128,000 nonsworn 
employees. Since 1987, the number of full-time local 
police employees has increased by about 156,000 (up 
35%). The increase includes about 122,000 (up 34%) more 
local police officers.

Findings are based on the 2013 Law Enforcement 
Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey 
sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The 
LEMAS Survey, conducted periodically since 1987, 
collects data on a range of topics from a nationally 
representative sample of state and local law enforcement 
agencies. Prior to the 2013 survey, the most recent 
LEMAS Survey was conducted in 2007. 

This report uses selected variables from the 2013 LEMAS 
data to describe the personnel, policies, and practices 
of local police departments. Comparisons are made with 
prior years where appropriate and when data are 
available.

To facilitate the comparison of police departments with 
others serving similarly sized jurisdictions, the 
statistics in this report are presented mainly by 
categories of population served. Because most 
departments employ small numbers of officers and serve 
small populations, overall agency-based percentages tend 
to reflect smaller departments more than larger ones. To 
adjust for this effect, the text and selected figures 
present additional overall percentages weighted by the 
number of officers employed.

About two-thirds of state and local law enforcement 
officers worked for local police departments

In 2013, the 605,000 local police employees nationwide 
represented a majority (58%) of the full-time personnel 
working for general purpose state and local law 
enforcement agencies (table 1). The 477,000 full-time 
local police officers nationwide accounted for about 
two-thirds (66%) of all state and local officers working 
for general purpose agencies. About 68% of local police 
officers were assigned to patrol operations, and about 
16% worked in the investigations area.

The 128,000 full-time nonsworn (or civilian) personnel 
in local police departments accounted for 21% of all 
full-time employees. Nearly all departments with 100 or 
more officers (99.6%) reported that their nonsworn 
employees performed administrative support functions. A 
majority of these departments also reported that their 
nonsworn employees performed duties related to research 
and statistics (81% of departments), accounting (79%), 
dispatch (72%), information technology (57%), forensics 
(56%), and human resources (54%) (not shown).

In addition to full-time employees, local police 
departments employed about 57,000 persons on a part-time 
basis. While more than three-quarters (79%) of full-time 
local police employees were sworn officers, less than 
half (47%) of part-time employees were sworn.

About a third (32%) of local police departments also 
used unpaid reserve (or auxiliary) officers as needed 
(appendix table 1). Nationwide, there were more than 
29,000 local police reserve or auxiliary officers.

About half of local police departments employed fewer 
than 10 officers
As in prior LEMAS Surveys, about half (48%) of local 
police departments employed the full-time equivalent of 
fewer than 10 officers in 2013 (table 2). Collectively, 
these departments employed about 4% of all full-time 
local police officers. In 1987, 53% of departments 
employed fewer than 10 officers.

A total of 645 (5%) local police departments employed 
100 or more officers in 2013. These departments employed 
63% of all full-time officers. In 1987, 4% of 
departments employed 100 or more officers.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) remained the 
largest local police department in 2013, with 34,454 
full-time officers. The NYPD was 1 of 43 local police 
departments that employed 1,000 or more full-time 
officers (appendix table 2).

More than half of local police officers were employed in 
jurisdictions with 100,000 or more residents

In 2013, 71% of departments served fewer than 10,000 
residents (table 3). These 8,700 departments employed 
13% of all full-time local police officers. About 3% 
(329) of departments served a resident population of 
100,000 or more and employed 54% of all officers.

Comparatively, about 8,800 (73%) local police 
departments served fewer than 10,000 residents and 
employed 14% of all officers in 1987. During the same 
year, 222 (2%) local police departments served a 
population of 100,000 or more and employed 49% of all 
officers.

Municipal and township police departments employed an 
average of 2.1 officers per 1,000 residents

Municipal and township police departments, which compose 
98% of local police departments, employed an average of 
2.1 full-time officers per 1,000 residents in 2013. This 
average was less than that observed in the 2007 (2.3 per 
1,000) and 2003 (2.5 per 1,000) LEMAS Surveys. 
Departments serving 25,000 to 249,999 residents had the 
lowest average ratio in 2013 (about 1.7 per 1,000) 
(figure 2). In both 2007 and 2013, county police 
departments employed an average of 1.7 full-time 
officers for every 1,000 residents served.

About 12% of local police officers were female

In 2013, about 58,000 (12%) of the full-time sworn 
personnel in local police departments were female (table 
4). From 2007 to 2013, female representation remained 
about the same (figure 3). In 1987, there were 27,000 
females (8%) serving as local police officers.

Since the inception of the LEMAS Survey in 1987, the 
employment of female officers has increased in all 
population categories, but larger jurisdictions have 
continued to employ females at a higher rate. In 2013, 
the percentage of female officers in jurisdictions with 
250,000 or more residents (17%) was more than twice that 
in jurisdictions with fewer than 25,000 residents (7%).

About 1 in 10 of first-line supervisors in local police 
departments were female

For the first time in 2013, the LEMAS Survey collected 
data on the representation of females in supervisory and 
managerial positions. The percentage of females working 
in first-line supervisory positions (9.5%) was less than 
that among sworn personnel overall (12.2%). The 
percentage of female first-line supervisors was more 
than twice as high in departments serving 250,000 or 
more residents (15%), compared to departments serving 
fewer than 50,000 residents (6%) (figure 4). An 
estimated 3% of local police chiefs were female, 
including about 7% of the chiefs in jurisdictions with 
250,000 or more residents.

About 27% of local police officers were members of a 
racial or ethnic minority

In 2013, more than a quarter (27%) of full-time local 
police officers were members of a racial or ethnic 
minority (table 5). About 130,000 minority local police 
were employed in 2013. The total represented an increase 
of about 11,000 (up 11%) since 2007, and an increase of 
about 78,000 (up 150%) since 1987. From 2007 to 2013, 
minority representation among local police officers 
increased from 25.3% to 27.3%. Minorities made up 14.6% 
of officers in 1987 (figure 5).

About 58,000 black or African American officers were 
employed by local police departments in 2013. This was 
about 3,000 (up 5%) more than in 2007. From 2007 to 
2013, the percentage of black officers remained at about 
12%. About 9% of officers were black in 1987.

About 55,000 Hispanic or Latino officers were employed 
by local police departments in 2013, which was about 
8,000 (up 16%) more than in 2007. From 2007 to 2013, the 
percentage of Hispanic officers increased from 10.3% to 
11.6%. In 1987, 4.5% of officers were Hispanic.

In 2013, about 14,000 officers were members of other 
minority groups (Asian, Native Hawaiian, or other 
Pacific Islander; or American Indian or Alaska Native). 
These groups accounted for 3.0% of local police officers 
in 2013, about the same as in 2007 (2.7%) and about 4 
times more than in 1987 (0.8%).

Departments serving larger jurisdictions were more 
diverse than departments serving smaller jurisdictions

Consistent with prior LEMAS Surveys, departments in 
larger jurisdictions were more diverse than those in 
smaller ones. In 2013, more than 2 in 5 officers in 
jurisdictions with 500,000 or more residents were 
members of a racial or ethnic minority, compared to 
fewer than 1 in 5 officers in jurisdictions with a 
population of less than 50,000. Since 1987, diversity 
has increased in all population categories. In 1987, 
about 6% to 7% of the officers in each population 
category below 50,000 were minorities. In 2013, the 
lowest percentage in population categories below 50,000 
was 11% (2,500 to 9,999 residents).

The inflation-adjusted average starting salary for 
entry-level local police officers in 2013 was unchanged 
from 2003

The overall average starting salary for entry-level 
local police officers in 2013 was $44,400, about the 
same as in 2003 after controlling for inflation (figure 
6). This amount represented a 7% increase from 1993, 
when newly hired entry-level officers earned the 2013 
equivalent of about $41,500. Salaries in departments 
serving 250,000 or more residents, where about 2 in 5 
officers were employed, remained stable from 2003 to 
2013. Salaries in departments serving fewer residents 
increased slightly during this period.

In 2013, the average base starting salary for entry-
level local police officers was at least $45,000 in all 
population categories of 25,000 or more (table 6). The 
average starting salary was highest in jurisdictions 
with 100,000 to 249,999 residents ($50,700) and lowest 
in jurisdictions with fewer than 2,500 residents 
($30,900). The base starting salary for first-line 
supervisors averaged more than $70,000 in jurisdictions 
with 50,000 or more residents, compared to less than 
$40,000 in the smallest jurisdictions. Salaries for 
local police chiefs started at an average of $161,500 in 
the largest jurisdictions, compared to $45,000 in the 
smallest. These salary comparisons do not take into 
account variations in cost of living.

Starting salaries for officers were about 19% higher in 
departments with a collective bargaining agreement for 
sworn personnel, compared to departments without a 
collective bargaining agreement. In 2013, a majority of 
the local police departments serving a population of 
10,000 or more residents had an active collective 
bargaining agreement (appendix table 3). In some 
departments, officer salaries could be supplemented by 
certain types of special pay related to educational 
achievement, special skills, special duty assignments, 
and other circumstances (appendix table 4).

Overtime compensation was available to sworn personnel 
in 90% of local police departments, employing 99% of all 
officers. Nearly all officers worked for a department in 
which they could be compensated for overtime work 
related to extended shifts, investigations, emergency 
response, court testimony, special events, or increased 
patrol. About a third (34%) of departments placed a 
limit on the amount of overtime an officer could earn 
(not shown).

An estimated 81% of local police departments, employing 
94% of all officers, offered sworn personnel a defined 
benefits (pension) plan. Nearly half (47%) of 
departments, employing about two-thirds (68%) of 
officers, offered a defined contributions plan, such as 
a 401(k) (not shown).

Overall, the operating costs for local police 
departments in 2013 were about $131,000 per sworn 
officer, $102,000 per employee, and $279 per resident. 
Operating costs per resident ranged from about $230 in 
the smallest jurisdictions to nearly $400 in the largest 
(appendix table 5). Previous LEMAS Surveys have shown 
that personnel costs, including salaries and benefits, 
are typically 80% to 90% of a department’s operating 
expenditures.

Nearly 1 in 4 local police officers worked for a 
department that required entry-level officers to have a 
2-year college degree
In 2013, the percentage of local police officers 
employed by a department with a college requirement for 
new officers (32%) was similar to that reported in 2003 
(34%), and about twice as high as in 1993 (16%) (figure 
7). In 2013, about 23% of officers were employed by a 
department that required new entry-level officers to 
have a 2-year degree, compared to 7% in 2003.

In 2013, all local police departments serving a 
population of 100,000 or more, and nearly all 
departments in smaller jurisdictions, had a minimum 
education requirement for new officers (table 7). The 
most common requirement (84% of departments) was a high 
school diploma. An estimated 15% of departments had some 
type of college requirement, including 10% that required 
a 2-year degree and 1% that required a 4-year degree. An 
estimated 54% of departments with a degree requirement 
considered military service as an alternative (not 
shown). Departments serving a population of 1 million or 
more (29%) were most likely to require a degree. In 
smaller population categories, the percentage of 
departments with a degree requirement ranged from 9% in 
jurisdictions with fewer than 2,500 residents to 20% in 
jurisdictions with 25,000 to 49,999 residents.

Local police departments were more likely to have a 
mission statement that included a community policing 
component in 2013 than in 2003
In 1997, the LEMAS Survey began tracking community 
policing personnel, activities, and policies in response 
to Department of Justice (DOJ) funding programs that 
were impacting local law enforcement agencies. DOJ’s 
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
defines three major components of community policing: 
(1) collaborative police-community partnerships; (2) 
support from agency management, structure, personnel, 
and information systems; and (3) a problem-solving 
process that develops and rigorously evaluates effective 
responses. (For more information on community policing, 
see the COPS website at http://www.cops.usdoj.gov.)

In 2013, about 7 in 10 local police departments, 
including about 9 in 10 departments serving a population 
of 25,000 or more, had a mission statement that included 
a community policing component (table 8). Departments 
with a community policing component employed 88% of all 
local police officers in 2013. Since 2003, significant 
increases in the percentage of departments with a 
community policing component occurred in all population 
categories (figure 8). The largest increase was among 
departments serving fewer than 10,000 residents, from 
39% in 2003 to 61% in 2013. Large increases were also 
observed in other population categories.

A majority of the local police departments serving 
25,000 or more residents reported that they had one or 
more problem-solving partnerships or agreements with 
local organizations in their community in 2013. 
Departments serving a population of 1 million or more 
(86%) were the most likely to have a problem-solving 
partnership. Overall, departments with a problem-solving 
partnership employed 63% of all local police officers. 
The 2003 LEMAS Survey found these partnerships and 
agreements were typically with other law enforcement 
agencies, school groups, neighborhood associations, 
local public agencies, business groups, advocacy groups, 
youth service organizations, senior citizen groups, or 
faith-based organizations.

Most departments serving 50,000 or more residents 
encouraged officer involvement in problem-solving 
projects

Most departments serving 25,000 or more residents, 
including more than 90% of those serving a population of 
100,000 or more, used geographic beat assignments for 
patrol officers (table 9). A majority of the departments 
serving 50,000 or more residents actively encouraged 
patrol officer involvement in problem-solving projects, 
and most departments serving 100,000 or more residents 
included such projects in the officer’s performance 
evaluation.

Overall, about 4 in 5 (79%) local police officers were 
employed by a department that used geographic patrol 
beats. About half (51%) were employed by a department 
that actively encouraged patrol officer involvement in 
problem-solving projects.
A majority of the departments serving 10,000 or more 
residents trained all new recruits for 8 hours or more 
in community policing skills, such as problem-solving 
and developing community partnerships. About half of the 
departments serving a population of less than 10,000 
provided such training to at least some recruits. A 
majority of the departments in all population categories 
provided community policing training to in-service 
officers (appendix table 6).

A majority of larger departments had full-time 
specialized units to address child abuse, juvenile 
crime, gangs, and domestic violence
Many local police departments had personnel designated 
to address crime-related problems and tasks in their 
community. In some instances, these issues were 
addressed by a specialized unit with full-time 
personnel. Larger departments were more likely than 
smaller ones to have the personnel and budgetary 
resources necessary to operate such units.
In 2013, about 9 in 10 local police departments 
employing 100 officers or more had personnel designated 
(whether part of a specialized unit or not) to address 
child abuse (90%), and about 8 in 10 had personnel 
designated to address gangs (83%),  juvenile crime 
(82%), and domestic violence (81%) (table 10). A 
majority of these larger departments had full-time 
specialized units to address child abuse (62%), juvenile 
crime (58%), gangs (55%), and domestic violence (54%).

A majority of local police departments with 100 or more 
officers also had designated personnel to perform 
special operational tasks related to tactical operations 
(95%), terrorism or homeland security (71%), and 
fugitives or warrants (68%) (appendix table 7).

Compared to 2003, the greatest increases in larger local 
police departments with designated personnel were for 
impaired driving (from 56% in 2003 to 75% in 2013), 
cybercrime (from 59% to 76%), and gangs (from 68% to 
83%) (figure 9). For full-time specialized units, the 
greatest increases also occurred for impaired driving 
(from 28% in 2003 to 39% in 2013), cybercrime (from 25% 
to 39%), and gangs (from 42% to 55%).

Nearly all departments serving a population of 100,000 
or more were participating in a drug task force

Many local police departments reported participating in 
one or more multiagency task forces. These task forces 
allow agencies from various jurisdictions and 
governmental levels to pool their resources to address 
complex problems, such as drug trafficking, gangs, and 
human trafficking. In 2013, about half of departments 
were participating in a multiagency drug task force, 
including more than 9 in 10 departments serving a 
population of 100,000 or more (table 11). About 8 in 10 
departments serving 25,000 to 99,999 residents and 7 in 
10 departments serving 10,000 to 24,999 residents were 
participating in a drug task force.

Overall, 13% of departments were participating in a gang 
task force, including a majority of the departments 
serving 100,000 or more residents. An estimated 4% of 
all departments were participating in a human 
trafficking task force, including a majority of those 
serving 250,000 or more residents.

METHODOLOGY

Survey overview

The LEMAS Survey periodically collects data from more 
than 3,000 general purpose law enforcement agencies, 
including state police and highway patrol agencies, 
local police departments, and sheriffs’ offices. The 
survey includes all agencies that employ 100 or more 
sworn officers and a nationally representative sample of 
smaller agencies.

Previous LEMAS data collections occurred in 1987, 1990, 
1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2007. A limited data 
collection that focused on community policing was 
conducted in 1999. These past surveys obtained data on 
functions performed, operating expenditures, job 
functions of sworn and nonsworn employees, officer 
salaries and special pay, demographic characteristics of 
officers, education and training requirements, types of 
weapons authorized, body armor policies, computers and 
information systems, types of vehicles operated, the use 
of special units, task force participation, and 
community policing activities. Survey questions are 
updated with each iteration to reflect emerging issues 
in the field of law enforcement. Publications based on 
prior LEMAS Surveys can be accessed on the BJS website.

Sampling frame

The sampling frame used for the 2013 LEMAS Survey was 
the 2008 BJS Census of State and Local Law Enforcement 
Agencies (CSLLEA) (the most recent available). At the 
time of the 2008 CSLLEA, nearly all of the more than 
12,000 police departments were operated at the sub-
county level by individual municipal (85%) or township 
(13%) governments. The remainder were operated by tribal 
governments, multiple local governments (regional or 
joint departments), or county governments.

The agency universe represented by the CSLLEA is more 
inclusive than that of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting 
(UCR) program. Some agencies are excluded from the UCR 
counts because they do not have an Originating Agency 
Identifier (ORI) assigned by the FBI. (Some agencies 
without an ORI are still included in the UCR employee 
counts (but not in the agency counts) because they 
report their data to another agency, which reports it to 
the FBI.)

The CSLLEA data include all officers with full arrest 
powers regardless of function, while the UCR data 
exclude officers not paid out of police funds. This 
exclusion generally pertains to officers working 
exclusively for jails or courts. The CSLLEA definition 
excludes many of these officers, but not all of them.

The UCR program defines law enforcement officers as 
individuals who ordinarily carry a firearm and a badge, 
have full arrest powers, and are paid from governmental 
funds set aside specifically for sworn law enforcement 
representatives. The CSLLEA definition relies 
exclusively on whether the officer possesses full arrest 
powers. Regardless of the arrest powers of their 
officers, agencies included in the CSLLEA that do not 
have a primary jurisdictional area for which they 
provide law enforcement services are considered out of 
scope for the LEMAS Survey because of its policing 
focus.

In 2008, the CSLLEA counted 765,246 full-time sworn 
officers, which was about 57,000 (or 8%) more than the 
708,569 reported by the UCR. A similar difference was 
observed for the 2004 and 2000 CSLLEA collections. 
Although the CSLLEA counts are larger than those of the 
UCR, the employment growth trends recorded by the CSLLEA 
over time have been consistent with those recorded by 
the UCR.

Sample design and selection

Local police departments and sheriffs’ offices are 
chosen for the LEMAS Survey using a stratified sample 
design based on number of sworn personnel. The original 
2013 LEMAS sample included 3,336 state and local law 
enforcement agencies. It was designed to be 
representative of all general purpose state and local 
law enforcement agencies in the United States, with 
separate samples drawn of local police departments and 
sheriffs’ offices. All 50 primary state law enforcement 
agencies (state police and highway patrol) were 
included. Agencies serving special jurisdictions (such 
as schools, airports, or parks), or with special 
enforcement responsibilities (such as conservation laws 
or alcohol laws), were considered out of scope for the 
survey.

The 2013 LEMAS sample design called for 2,353 local 
police departments, divided into 7 strata based on 
number of sworn officers employed, to receive the 
survey. During the initial contact phase, it was 
determined that 26 of these departments had closed since 
the 2008 CSLLEA and were dropped from the sample. Of the 
remaining 2,327 departments, the sample design called 
for all 659 departments employing 100 or more full-time 
sworn personnel to be self-representing (SR) and receive 
the survey. It was later determined that 29 of these SR 
departments did not receive the survey because of 
inaccurate contact information. As a result, the base 
weight for SR departments is 1.046 instead of the 
expected 1.000. The 6 remaining strata and their 
corresponding base weights are 50 to 99 officers, 2.572; 
25 to 49 officers, 4.225; 10 to 24 officers, 6.260; 5 to 
9 officers, 7.288; 2 to 4 officers, 14.611, and 1 
officer, 31.302.

Agency response rate

Of the 2,327 eligible local police departments that 
received the survey, 2,059 completed it, for a response 
rate of 88%. By size, the response rate ranged from 91% 
for agencies with 50 or more officers to 84% for those 
with fewer than 10 officers. An adjustment factor unique 
to each stratum was used to account for nonresponse. 
These nonresponse adjustments and the resulting final 
analytical weights for each stratum are included in 
appendix table 8.

Item nonresponse and imputations

All departments, regardless of size, were asked to 
complete the 80-item CJ-44 Survey questionnaire. A 
majority of the responses were received electronically 
through a survey website. For the 2,059 departments 
completing the survey, item nonresponse rates due to 
omission or invalid data were low for the data elements 
used in this report (appendix table 9).

When a department did not supply a response to a 
numerical item, a ratio imputation method was used. The 
ratio imputation used the value of the ratio of the 
numerical variable to the number of full-time sworn 
personnel for departments that provided the numerical 
data. This ratio was computed for each population 
category and applied to the number of full-time sworn 
personnel in departments with the missing data to 
produce the imputed value. Imputations were not used for 
categorical variables.

Accuracy of the estimates

The accuracy of the estimates presented in this report 
depends on two types of error: sampling and nonsampling. 
Sampling error is the variation that may occur by chance 
because a sample was used rather than a complete 
enumeration of the population. Nonsampling error can be 
attributed to many sources such as the inability to 
obtain information about all cases in the sample, 
inability to obtain complete and correct information 
from the administrative records, and processing errors. 
In any survey, the full extent of the nonsampling error 
is never known.

The sampling error, as measured by an estimated standard 
error, varies by the size of the estimate and the size 
of the base population. Because the LEMAS data were 
collected from a sample, the results are subject to 
sampling error. Variance and standard error estimates 
for the 2013 LEMAS were generated using the SUDAAN® 
statistical software package. The Taylor linearization 
method for a “stratified without replacement” design was 
used for these calculations. See appendix tables 10 
through 29 for the standard error estimates.

These standard error estimates may be used to construct 
confidence intervals around percentages in this report. 
For example, the 95%-confidence interval around the 
percentage of local police departments with a mission 
statement that includes a community policing component 
is 68% ± 1.96 × 1.5% (or approximately 65% to 71%).

These standard errors may also be used to test the 
significance of the difference between two sample 
statistics by pooling the standard errors of the two 
sample estimates. For example, the standard error of the 
difference between departments serving fewer than 2,500 
residents and those serving 2,500 to 9,999 residents for 
participation in a drug task force would be 3.9% (or the 
square root of the sum of the squared standard errors 
for each group). The 95%-confidence interval around the 
difference would be 1.96 × 3.9% (or 7.7%). Since the 
observed difference of 16% (47% minus 31%) is greater 
than 7.7%, the difference would be considered 
statistically significant.

Standard error estimates may also be used to construct 
confidence intervals around numeric variables such as 
personnel counts. For example, the 95%-confidence 
interval around the number of full-time sworn personnel 
is approximately 477,317 ± (1.96 × 16,470), or 445,036 
to 509,958.

Dollar amounts adjusted for inflation

For the salary comparisons presented in figure 6, the 
salary data for the prior survey years of 1993 and 2003 
were converted to 2013 dollars. This conversion was 
accomplished using Consumer Price Index data published 
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics available at 
www.bls.gov/inflation_calculator.htm.


************************************************

The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department 
of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible 
for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal
offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and 
the operation of criminal and civil justice systems at
the federal, state, tribal, and local levels. BJS collects,
analyzes, and disseminates reliable and valid statistics on 
crime and justice systems in the United States, supports 
improvements to state and local criminal justice information
systems, and participates with national and international 
organizations to develop and recommend national standards 
for justice statistics. William J. Sabol is director.
This report was written by Brian A. Reaves. Andrea M. 
Burch verified the report. Data were collected and 
processed by the Urban Institute.

Irene Cooperman, Jill Thomas, and Lynne McConnell edited 
the report, and Barbara Quinn produced the report.

May 2015, NCJ 248677

************************************************
Office of Justice Programs
Innovation * Partnerships * Safer Neighborhoods
www.ojp.usdoj.gov 
************************************************

************************
5/13/PMF/12:00pm
************************