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Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, by Region and Geographic Division by Population Group, Number and Rate per 1,000 Inhabitants, 2012

The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

General comments

• This table provides the number and rate per 1,000 inhabitants of law enforcement employees broken down by region, geographic division, and population group.
• The totals for full-time law enforcement employees in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan county agencies are combined in this table.
• 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.
• 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.

Methodology

• The information in this table is derived from law enforcement employee counts (as of October 31, 2012) submitted by participating agencies.
• 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 to pay sworn law enforcement.
• Civilian employees include full-time agency personnel such as clerks, radio dispatchers, meter attendants, stenographers, jailers, correctional officers, and mechanics.

Regions and geographic divisions

The U.S. Census Bureau has established the four regions of the United States along with their nine geographic divisions that are used by the UCR Program to compile the nation’s crime data. The following table lists the 50 states and the District of Columbia arranged according to the regions and geographic divisions of the United States.

NORTHEASTERN STATES

New England
Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Vermont

Middle Atlantic
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania

MIDWESTERN STATES

East North Central
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Ohio
Wisconsin

West North Central
Iowa
Kansas
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota

SOUTHERN STATES

South Atlantic
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Maryland
North Carolina
South Carolina
Virginia
West Virginia

East South Central
Alabama
Kentucky
Mississippi
Tennessee

West South Central
Arkansas
Louisiana
Oklahoma
Texas

WESTERN STATES

Mountain
Arizona
Colorado
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
New Mexico
Utah
Wyoming

Pacific
Alaska
California
Hawaii
Oregon
Washington

Population estimation

The FBI calculated 2012 state growth rates using the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 and 2012 provisional state/national population estimates. The FBI then estimated population figures for city and county jurisdictions by applying the 2012 state growth rate to the updated 2011 U.S. Census Bureau data.