During our recent national RLEO census, we uncovered some interesting statistics regarding the "current" U.S. law enforcement officer population. One fact that emerged is that RLEOs make up a significant percentage of overall national law enforcement numbers, a fact rarely - if ever - made. It is important to note that in many agencies where RLEOs are actually used, their percentage of total agency sworn personnel is typically much higher. In many small jurisdictions, the numbers often approach 50%. Looked at another way, tell any agency that you're cutting ten percent of their sworn law enforcement officers and we guarantee you'll get significant push-back.
Here are the numbers. Note that the federal statistics from DOJ BJS are no more recent than 2008, the year of their latest national LEO census (RLEOs aren't counted in the federal census).
Police Officers / Departments 463,000
Sheriffs Deputies 174,000
Tribal Police 3,462
Campus Police 13,000
Total Local LEOs 653,462
Local RLEOs 86,305
Nation's Local LE Population 739,767
Of the total national law enforcement officer population of some 739,000 sworn officers, about 11.6% are RLEOs. Compared with the military, where reserves and national guard add significantly to the operational forces (30%+) of the Army and Air Force, in the same manner the nation should focus on expansion of reserve programs and RLEO numbers to better support local agencies, their mission, to the benefit of their public's safety. RLEOs offer the most cost effective way to have readily available, trained, equipped, locally experienced, agency-trained law enforcement manpower to support crises, natural disasters, and critical incidents. This national expansion of Law Enforcement Reserve Programs needs to become a national policy objective. The best place to start is with a better understanding of the numbers.
