Steve Stearns/StearnsImages.com/flickrThe FBI’s
latest crime statistics
include an accounting of law enforcement employees in cities,
towns, and counties across the country. The Department of Justice
notes nationally there was an average of 2.4 sworn officers per
1,000 residents, with the largest rate in towns with fewer than
10,000 residents, which have an average of 3.6 sworn officers per
1,000 residents.

Of the ten most populated cities in America, Chicago had the
highest rate, with 4.4 sworn officers per 1,000 residents, or 
11,944 sworn officers.  New York City came close, with 4.1
sworn officers per 1,000 residents, or 34,555 sworn officers. The
rate doesn’t include an additional 14,728 “civilian” law
enforcement employees. Chicago, by comparison, only has 822 such
employees according to the FBI statistics. Cities with a population
of more than 100,000 had an average of 2.7 officers per 1,000
residents, but in the Northeast it was closer to 4 per 1,000. In
the Midwest, cities of that size had an average of 3.1

Of the ten largest cities in the US, San Jose had the lowest
rate, at just 1.1 sworn officers per 1,000 residents.

Find your town, if it submitted data to the feds,
here.