Does Florida spend too much on law enforcement? Data from 2020 shows Sunshine State near front of the pack

by | Mar 7, 2023



  • At the height of the 2020 “Defund the Police” movement, Florida ranked 7th nationally in per capita police spending.
  • The Sunshine State ranked 15th nationally in the number of police officers per 100 people.
  • New York took 3rd overall in police spending per capita, and 1st overall in total officers per 100 people.

High-profile unlawful killings by police officers in recent years have put American law enforcement under intense public scrutiny. Outrage over abuses of power, most notably the murder of George Floyd, led many to advocate for radical police reform, with some going so far as to call for defunding the police.

Dismissed by elected officials across the political spectrum as an unworkable idea, the defund the police movement failed to gain meaningful traction with policy makers – many of whom have expressed support for police reform rather than complete disbandment. In his 2022 State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden stated in no-uncertain terms: “We should all agree the answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police…Fund them with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”

In light of rising violent crime, grassroots support for the defund the police movement also appears to be slipping. An October 2021 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 47% of American adults say they want increased police spending in their area, up from 31% in June 2020. State and local police spending totalled $128.2 billion in 2020, up from $122.6 billion the previous year – and if public sentiment is any gauge, that number will likely continue to rise.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, state and local spending on police protection totaled $10.1 billion in Florida in 2020, or about $468 per resident, the seventh highest per capita spending among the 50 states.

A total of 62,604 police officers were employed in Florida in 2020. Adjusting for population, this comes out to about 287 officers for every 100,000 people, the 15th most among states.

Click here to see how police spending compares in every state.

Data on police protection spending is from Census Bureau’s 2020 State & Local Government Finance Historical Datasets and Tables, while data on police employment is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 Annual Survey of Public Employment. Per capita calculations were made using U.S. Census Bureau population data from July 2021.

 

Rank State Per capita police spending, 2020 ($) Number of officers in state, 2020 Officers per 100,000 people, 2020
1 California 564 115,744 295
2 Alaska 554 1,963 268
3 New York 550 80,662 407
4 Maryland 492 17,917 291
5 Nevada 472 8,588 273
6 Rhode Island 468 3,090 282
7 Florida 468 62,604 287
8 Illinois 444 37,861 299
9 New Jersey 430 32,761 354
10 Minnesota 423 12,419 218
11 Arizona 406 19,949 274
12 Wyoming 401 1,862 322
13 Colorado 400 16,605 286
14 Delaware 394 2,570 256
15 Oregon 374 8,915 210
16 Hawaii 374 4,154 288
17 New Mexico 361 5,856 277
18 Kansas 361 8,794 300
19 Connecticut 359 9,408 261
20 New Hampshire 357 3,660 264
21 Massachusetts 346 19,923 285
22 North Carolina 346 30,721 291
23 Montana 344 2,617 237
24 Ohio 344 29,281 249
25 Missouri 344 17,991 292
26 Vermont 341 1,366 212
27 Tennessee 331 21,365 306
28 Pennsylvania 330 29,914 231
29 North Dakota 330 2,050 265
30 Washington 329 14,776 191
31 Wisconsin 326 14,966 254
32 Louisiana 326 16,206 350
33 Texas 320 79,745 270
34 Virginia 313 21,158 245
35 Nebraska 298 4,923 251
36 Idaho 292 4,416 232
37 Michigan 290 20,040 199
38 Alabama 289 14,290 284
39 Oklahoma 288 11,309 284
40 Iowa 287 7,061 221
41 Georgia 284 27,743 257
42 Utah 282 6,221 186
43 South Carolina 276 14,478 279
44 Mississippi 267 8,580 291
45 South Dakota 258 2,123 237
46 West Virginia 254 3,901 219
47 Arkansas 245 8,902 294
48 Maine 241 2,957 215
49 Indiana 236 15,633 230
50 Kentucky 182 9,680 215

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