Small departments, big changes: A blueprint to modernizing the heart of policing
The heart of policing in the United States is made up of the thousands of departments employing fewer than 100 full-time police officers. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 92% of the 17,541 state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States employ fewer than 100 full-time sworn police officers, and only 80 agencies employ more than 1000. The resource constraints smaller law enforcement organizations face challenge their ability to adapt to today’s fast-changing poli