Characteristics of Local Police Department Personnel: Selected Findings from BJS’s Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey

• In Event: National Law Enforcement Statistics with the Bureau of Justice Statistics

Abstract

BJS periodically collects detailed, nationally representative data from law enforcement agencies as part of the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey. These data are valuable for researchers and practitioners to identify changes and trends across numerous variables, including agency responsibilities, operating expenditures, job functions of sworn and civilian employees, officer salaries and special pay, demographic characteristics of officers, weapons and armor policies, education and training requirements, computers and information systems, vehicles, special units, and community policing activities. The LEMAS program has been active since 1987, with the most recent survey having been completed last year. This presentation will cover recently released findings from the 2020 LEMAS survey, highlighting staffing trends among local police departments and sheriffs’ offices, as well as agency responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Author

• Sean Goodison, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics