Law Enforcement Core Statistics (LECS)

For over 25 years, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has been the authoritative source for national statistics regarding the personnel, operations, policies, and procedures of law enforcement agencies (LEAs). These data are primarily collected through BJS’ core law enforcement data collection programs: the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) core and supplement surveys and the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA).

Through the Law Enforcement Core Statistics Program (LECS), BJS combines these collections into a cohesive law enforcement collection program and reshapes their content to focus on agency performance as well as contemporary topics related to agency staffing, regulations, and policies. By redesigning the component collections of LECS, BJS will be able to provide detailed information about LEA performance that aligns these collections with an ongoing national debate about the need for new measures and metrics for law enforcement agencies.

Current Collections

Beginning in fall 2021, BJS will administer the 2021 Survey of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies (SCLEA). SCLEA is the only nationally representative survey of campus law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and includes both private and public universities and agencies with sworn and non-sworn personnel. The survey gathers information on agency staffing, operations, budget, policies, responsibilities and equipment. The results are used to provide an overview of campus LEAs in order to assess their readiness to respond to the challenges unique to campus security.

Coming soon

In the fall of 2022 BJS will administer the 2022 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA). CSLLEA serves as a complete enumeration of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the U.S. This national roster of active publicly-funded LEAs serves as a sampling frame for other survey collections as well as provides national, state and local-level data on the size, characteristics and functions of LEAs in the U.S.

In the spring of 2023, BJS will administer the 2023 The Census of Law Enforcement Training Academies (CLETA). CLETA is an on-going BJS data collection of approximately 750 state and local law enforcement academies nationwide that offered basic recruit training. BJS will use the data to produce national-level estimates describing the basic training curricula, characteristics of trained recruits and instructor qualifications of these academies. BJS will also be able to compare the results with data from prior years to determine how training has changed over time.