Timothy C. Hart, Brian A. Reaves, Ph.D.

March 12, 2000    NCJ 177607

Provides national data on Federal officers with arrest and firearms authority for June 1998, based on a census of Federal agencies. Using agency classifications, the report presents the number of officers working in the areas of criminal investigation and enforcement, police patrol and response, security and protection, court operations, and corrections, by agency and State.

Highlights include the following:

• Duty areas for the 83,000 Federal officers nationwide included criminal investigation/enforcement (42%), police response/patrol (19%), corrections (18%), noncriminal investigation/enforcement (14%), court operations (3%), and security/protection (3%).
• Three-fifths of Federal officers were employed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (16,552), Bureau of Prisons (12,587), FBI (11,285), and U.S. Customs Service (10,359). Twelve other agencies employed at least 500 officers.
• From 1996 to 1998 the INS reported the largest increase in officers in both number (4,149) and percentage (33%). More than half of this increase occurred within the Border Patrol, which employed 7,714 officers in 1998 compared to 5,441 in 1996 (up 42%).

Part of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Series

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