Police Employment and Expenditure Trends

• NCJ Number: 100117
• Author(s): C Uchida; R Goldberg; C Bridgeforth; A Roschelle; D Kaufman; P Gartin
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 4 pages
• Corporate Author: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, February 1986

Annotation

Using data from the International City Management Association (ICMA) Municipal Yearbook for 1938-82, this study examined trends in police employment, salaries, and expenditures.

Abstract

ICMA data for 88 cities with at least 100,000 residents were supplemented by census and Uniform Crime Reports data. During this time, spending for police services increased 37-fold in nominal dollars. Adjusted for inflation, expenditures increased 5.5 times, peaking in 1977. Per capita police expenditures adjusted for inflation nearly quadrupled, peaking in 1978. From 1954 to 1972 sworn and civilian police employment nearly doubled, but has remained fairly stable since. The police share of total city budgets increased steadily from 8 percent in 1940 to 14 percent in 1980. Northeastern cities and those with a million or more residents spent considerably more per capita on police services than did those in other areas or with smaller populations. Although cities with the highest crime rates spent more per capita for police protection than did those with lower crime rates, there was little difference between per capita police spending for cities with the lowest and those with the next lowest crime rates. Tabular data and a listing of additional statistical reports.