NCJ Number
173172
Journal
Policing Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: 1998 Pages: 97-120
Date Published
1998
Length
24 pages
Annotation
After exploring all of the issues involved in counting police officers and police agencies, this study generates new estimates of the number of police officers and police agencies in the United States.
Abstract
For the past several decades, the job of counting police has been the responsibility of a number of government agencies. The FBI, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and various segments of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration have all played a part in estimating the number of police in the United States. These agencies, using different methodologies, have produced a variety of sometimes consistent and sometimes inconsistent estimates. After briefly tracing the history of these attempts to count police, this study dissects the two most current agency-level databases that contain information on American police agencies. The result is a more fundamental understanding of the issues involved in counting police. Next, the authors introduce a third data source that has recently been established by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) at the U.S. Department of Justice. Using all three sources, the authors develop their own estimates of the number of police officers and police agencies. The paper then examines how the COPS Office counts law enforcement officers and provides a baseline estimate useful for determining the Clinton Administration's success in putting 100,000 new officers on the streets. Finally, the authors present a few recommendations that government agencies might implement to produce more consistent estimates when counting police. 6 tables, 17 notes, and 46 references