Report Shows Rise in Police Patrols
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WASHINGTON — The number of full-time uniformed state and local police assigned to patrol the nation’s streets increased by more than 19% from 1992 to 1996, the Justice Department said Sunday.
According to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of patrol officers grew during that four-year period by more than 68,000 to reach 423,000.
Those officers represented 64% of all full-time police, up from 59% in 1993.
Proponents of community policing applauded the numbers as evidence that a crime bill to put more police on the streets and in partnership with neighborhoods is working. The report also found that the total number of full-time state and local officers with arrest powers increased by 59,000 since 1992 to total 663,535 in 1996. Of the full-time sworn officers, 15% were assigned to investigative duties.
New York City’s Police Department, the largest law enforcement agency in the country, employed 36,813 full-time officers in 1996.
The report is available on the bureau’s Web site at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
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