Table 75

Full-time Civilian Law Enforcement Employees
by Population Group
Percent of Total, 2008

Population group	Percent civilian employees	Number of agencies	2008 estimated population
TOTAL AGENCIES:	30.8	14,169	286,237,461
TOTAL CITIES	22.6	10,915	193,548,068
GROUP I (250,000 and over)	23.2	75	55,781,739
1,000,000 and over (Group I subset)	23.3	10	25,543,437
500,000 to 999,999 (Group I subset)	22.0	24	16,218,619
250,000 to 499,999 (Group I subset)	24.5	41	14,019,683
GROUP II (100,000 to 249,999)	24.7	189	27,940,012
GROUP III (50,000 to 99,999)	23.3	437	29,817,070
GROUP IV (25,000 to 49,999)	21.3	807	27,597,191
GROUP V (10,000 to 24,999)	20.1	1,807	28,634,261
GROUP VI (under 10,000)	22.2	7,600	23,777,795
METROPOLITAN COUNTIES	41.9	1,201	65,844,305
NONMETROPOLITAN COUNTIES	40.8	2,053	26,845,088
SUBURBAN AREAS¹	34.9	7,412	121,966,483

¹ Suburban areas include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and county law enforcement agencies that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area (see Data Declaration). Suburban areas exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city. The agencies associated with suburban areas also appear in other groups within this table.
NOTE: No 2008 police employee data were received for the state of West Virginia.

Data Declaration

Provides the methodology used in constructing this table and other pertinent information about this table.

In 2008, 30.8 percent of the Nation’s full-time law enforcement employees were civilians.
Within the Nation’s cities, 22.6 percent of full-time law enforcement employees were civilians.
The highest percentages of full-time civilian law enforcement employees were in metropolitan counties (41.9 percent) and nonmetropolitan counties (40.8 percent).