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5.6: Metro

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    48205
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    Metro

    Metropolitan or city level Police Department are typically what most people think of when you mention law enforcement. This is rational as the majority of law enforcement personnel work at the local level. Across the United States there is great range in the size, policies, and practice of the various law enforcement departments. Departments can range in size from New York City Police Department (NYPD) which is the largest municipal police force in the United States with over 34,000 authorized uniformed officers and several thousand civilian employees to small towns like Gaines Township which has a one-man police force.

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    Image 5.6

    Typically the jurisdiction of most natural level Police Department is the geographical jurisdiction of their city limits, although they may have agreements with surrounding communities and this cooperates beyond their city limits though this is not always the case. In some communities they may be assisted by outside departments such as a member of the sheriff department assisting an officer that needs backup. Despite their great variation in size most of the tasks and services of responding to calls, enforcing municipal, County, state, and federal laws that are provided are quite similar across the country.

    It is also interesting to note that there are over 12,500 local police departments. About half of the local police department are rather small and employing fewer than 10 full-time sworn personnel. Approximately 90% of local level law enforcement serves populations less than 25,000. Starting salaries vary greatly by the area of the country but average around $35,000. Roughly 12% of local departments require at least some college for their entry level officers, 8% require a degree and only 1% require a four-year degree. While improvements have been made in recruiting women and minorities currently approximately 81% of officers are Caucasian, 11.3% are African-American, 6.2 are Hispanic, and 1.3 are other. Overall, only 8.8% of officers are women.


    This page titled 5.6: Metro is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Dr. Wendelin M. Hume & Sherina M. Hume.

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