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