How many police departments are in the US: agencies by type, size and state, fire departments, and the free lists

This page is for anyone who needs the number of police or fire departments in the US, and for companies that sell to them: body-worn cameras and in-car video, records management and dispatch software, vehicles and upfitting, uniforms and equipment, training, radios and fleet services. It sets out the federal counts by type, size and state, explains why figures differ, shows where to get the lists, and explains how departments buy.

How many police departments there are in the US

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, June 2018 (published October 2022), and Federal Law Enforcement Officers, 2020. Counts agencies with at least one full-time-equivalent sworn officer.

State and local agencies employed 1,214,260 people full time in 2018, 787,565 of them sworn officers. The number of agencies fell by 444 (2%) between 2008 and 2018, mostly because there were fewer local police departments. Every state except Hawaii has a primary state agency, while Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii and DC have no sheriffs' offices with primary policing duties.

Why the counts differ

• The federal census is from 2018. BJS's Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies for 2018 is the latest published, so any newer national figure is an estimate or comes from a different list.
• BJS counts agencies with sworn officers. An agency needs at least one full-time-equivalent sworn officer to be counted. Agencies below that are left out.
• FBI counts reporting units. The FBI assigns an identifier to every agency that reports crime data, including some that BJS doesn't count separately. In Ohio, the FBI's agency list has 863 agencies, against 806 in BJS's 2018 census.

Police departments by size

The 47 largest departments employ almost a third of local officers, while 5,204 departments have fewer than 10. Sheriffs' offices follow the same pattern: 1,584 of the 3,051 have 24 or fewer sworn officers, and 48 have 500 or more.

Police departments by state

BJS, 2018. Texas's total includes many constable offices.

California and New York have big departments rather than many: New York's 396 local police departments employ 54,214 sworn officers, more than Pennsylvania's 896 (19,146).

How many fire departments there are in the US

The registered departments report 1,055,400 active firefighters: 370,891 career, 550,782 volunteer and 133,707 paid per call. 25,918 are local fire departments or fire districts; the rest are contract, Department of Defense, state, industrial, airport and tribal departments. The NFPA estimates that the 18% of departments that are all or mostly career protect 70% of the population. Pennsylvania (1,771), New York (1,649), Texas (1,530), Ohio (1,148) and Illinois (1,107) have the most registered departments, and 68% of departments have a single station.

How to get a list of police and fire departments

The FBI and FEMA lists give you every department's name and location, but not who runs it or what it's buying. Add the chief, the sheriff or the fire chief from each agency's website.

How police and fire departments buy

• The city or county council holds the money. The chief or sheriff proposes, the council or county board approves the budget and large contracts, and the city or county purchasing office runs bids above state thresholds. A sheriff is usually an elected official with more budget independence than an appointed police chief.
• Federal grants pay for equipment. The Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), a formula grant, is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local governments, and it can pay for personnel, equipment, supplies, training and information systems. Its local allocations are public.
• Cooperative contracts shorten the sale. Many departments buy from state contracts or cooperative purchasing agreements another agency has already competed.
• Small departments buy together. A department with five officers often shares dispatch, records and training with the county or a regional consortium.

As general guidance, the usual owners by what you sell:

Worked example: records software for Ohio police

Illustrative example. The company and its rates are invented; the counts come from BJS (2018) and the FBI's agency list, checked on 30 October 2026.

The seller: Lakefront RMS (lakefront-rms.example) sells records management software to departments with 10 to 50 officers. The territory: Ohio, which had 806 law enforcement agencies in BJS's census, 654 of them local police departments.

1. Pull the list. The FBI's agency list for Ohio has 863 agencies: 701 city, 88 county, 34 college or university, and others. Keep the city departments.
2. Size them. Nationally, 3,420 departments have 10 to 24 officers and 1,688 have 25 to 49, about 43% of all local departments (our calculation). Check each Ohio department's size on its website or annual report.
3. Find the trigger. Look for departments whose city posted a JAG award, a new chief, or a request for proposals for records or dispatch software.
4. Do the arithmetic. If an illustrative 280 Ohio departments fit the size range and one in eight replaces its records system in a year, that's 35 decisions. Winning 5 at an illustrative $30,000 a year gives $150,000 in new annual revenue.

Finding each chief and what's changed at each department is the slow part; Bebop finds the contacts and researches each agency in a list.

Next step: for how public bodies run purchases, read our guide to selling to government.