Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers (CFLEO), [United States], Fiscal Year 2020 (ICPSR 38667)

Version Date: May 10, 2023

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Principal Investigator(s):
United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38667.v1

Version V1

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Alternate Title

CFLEO 2020

Summary

The 2020 Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers (CFLEO) collects information from federal law enforcement agencies that are authorized to make arrests and/or carry firearms. Data describe the number of officers employed by the agencies, the demographic characteristics of the officers, the functions of the officers, as well as hiring policies, screening techniques, equipment, and use of force techniques employed by these agencies.

Citation

United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers (CFLEO), [United States], Fiscal Year 2020. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-05-10. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38667.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

None

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2020 (Fiscal Year)

Date of Collection

2021
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Study Design

The 2020 Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers (CFLEO) included agencies that employed full-time officers with federal arrest authority, authorization to carry firearms while on duty, or both. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) determined agency eligibility for the 2020 CFLEO using information from the 2016 CFLEO and the Federal Deaths in Custody Reporting Program.

Sample

Data come from all federal law enforcement agencies employing officers with arrest and/or firearm authority. The CFLEO excludes officers in the U.S. Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and Space Force) and federal officers stationed in foreign countries. Due to security and classified information restrictions, agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the Transportation Security Administration's Federal Air Marshal Service were also excluded. For the same reasons, the CFLEO did not collect information on the number of officers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Mount Weather Police Department.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

All federal agencies employing officers with arrest and firearm authority.

Unit(s) of Observation

Organization

Data Source

Self-enumerated forms

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

Data include counts of officers based on sex and race/ethnicity, functions; counts of supervisors by race and sex; counts of officers based on OPM job series; agencies' policies for targeted hiring and screening; and agencies' authorization of equipment and techniques for use by officers.

Response Rates

Of the 98 agencies BJS contacted for the 2020 CFLEO, four were ineligible because they employed no personnel with federal law enforcement authority. BJS provided eligible agencies an electronic form via email that contained questions about staffing and policies for FY 2020. Of the 94 eligible agencies, 79 responded (including one agency for which another agency provided information), for an overall response rate of 84%. For 11 of the 15 nonresponders, BJS used other sources of information to identify the number of officers employed by these agencies.

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Original Release Date

2023-05-10

Version History

2023-05-10 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
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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.