Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA), 2008 (ICPSR 27681)
Version Date: Aug 3, 2011 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR27681.v1
Version V1
Alternate Title View help for Alternate Title
Summary View help for Summary
The BJS Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA) is conducted every 4 years to provide a complete enumeration of agencies and their employees. Employment data are reported by agencies for sworn and nonsworn (civilian) personnel and, within these categories, by full-time or part-time status. The pay period that included September 30, 2008, was the reference date for all personnel data. Agencies also complete a checklist of functions they regularly perform, or have primary responsibility for, within the following areas: patrol and response, criminal investigation, traffic and vehicle-related functions, detention-related functions, court-related functions, special public safety functions (e.g., animal control), task force participation, and specialized functions (e.g., search and rescue). The CSLLEA provides national data on the number of state and local law enforcement agencies and employees for local police departments, sheriffs' offices, state law enforcement agencies, and special jurisdiction agencies. It also serves as the sampling frame for BJS surveys of law enforcement agencies.
Citation View help for Citation
Export Citation:
Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
city
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Sample View help for Sample
The 2008 CSLLEA form was mailed to 20,110 agencies that were determined to potentially be operating on the reference date of September 30, 2008. This master list was created by compiling information from the following sources:
- The 2004 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA).
- Lists provided by Peace Officer Standards and Training offices and other state agencies.
- An FBI list of agencies requesting new identifiers since the 2004 CSLLEA.
The data were collected on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. More than half (52 percent) of all responses were submitted in hardcopy version by mail or fax. Another 41 percent were received through a secure website operated by NORC. The remaining 7 percent of agencies did not respond by website, mail, or fax within the allotted time-frame and were contacted by phone to obtain their responses. BJS assisted with this non-response follow up. Responding agencies were screened for eligibility, and were excluded if any of the following conditions existed on the CSLLEA reference date of September 30, 2008. The percentage of agencies from the original master list that were ruled ineligible through each criterion is in parentheses.
- The agency employed only part-time officers and the total combined hours worked by these officers averaged less than 35 hours per week (5.1 percent of agencies from master list excluded).
- The agency was closed, represented a duplicate listing, or was otherwise an invalid entry on the master list (2.2 percent).
- The agency contracted or outsourced to another agency for performance of all services (1.7 percent).
- The agency did not employ personnel with general arrest powers (0.6 percent).
- The agency did not operate with funds from a state, local, special district, or tribal government (0.6 percent).
- All sworn officers volunteered their time on an unpaid basis (0.3 percent).
Universe View help for Universe
All state and local law enforcement agencies that were publicly funded and employed at least one full-time or part-time sworn officer with general arrest powers.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
self-enumerated forms
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2011-08-03
Version History View help for Version History
2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
- United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA), 2008. ICPSR27681-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-08-03. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR27681.v1
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.