FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on “2022’s Best and Worst States to Be a Police Officer” and Arkansas checked in at the very bottom of the rankings.
In order to determine the best states to pursue a career in law enforcement, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 30 key indicators of police-friendliness. The data set ranges from the median income for law-enforcement officers to police deaths per 1,000 officers to state and local police-protection expenses per capita.
Connecticut ranked #1 overall, with California and Illinois rounding out the top three.
The following were Arkansas’ rankings, with 1 being best and 25 equalling an average score:
- 40th – Law-Enforcement Officers per Capita
- 50th – Median Income for Law-Enforcement Officers (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
- 42nd – Median Income Growth for Law-Enforcement Officers
- 46th – Violent-Crime Rate
- 18th – % of Homicide Cases Solved
- 48th – State & Local Police-Protection Expenses per Capita
- 51st – Police Deaths per 1,000 Officers
For the purposes of the report, “Law-enforcement officers” includes police and sheriff’s patrol officers, detectives and criminal investigators.
The full results of the report are available here.
