How many policemen and fireman (including volunteer firemen, emergency
medical technicians and wildfire fighters) are there in the U.S?

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 06 Feb 2004 06:56 PST

You might consider posting two seperate questions. The police issue
can be answered but the firefighter issue cannot. You see, when wild
fires occur, volunteers are assembled from across the nation who are
cross trained to fight fires as well as their primary job. The US
forest service for example will train technicians to fight fires and
deploy them in an emergency. The park service, Corps of Engineers and
many others do this as well, making the estimate impossible to know
for certain.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by dcunited-ga on 06 Feb 2004 08:09 PST

Please do not include wildfire firemen.

Keep in mind that there are many different kinds of jobs that you
might consider to be under the headings "police officer" or
"firefighter".  For example, the following U.S. data comes from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Firefighters:  273,850
Fire Inspectors and Investigators: 12,140
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers:  597,650
Detectives and Criminal Investigators: 88,460
Transit and Railroad Police: 6,010
First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Police and Detectives: 109,530
First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Fire Fighting and Prevention Workers: 60,900
Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists: 1,450

There is also data for bailiffs, correctional officers, fish and game
wardens, parking enforcement workers, animal control workers, private
detectives, security guards, crossing guards, etc.

Also, volunteer firemen may have other jobs, and would thus be under
another category--not included in the data.

Thanks for your comment chicago25-ga.
I am looking for ballpark numbers, backed by a legitimate source, like
the Bureau of Labor Statistics you quoted, of emergency
first-responders, like policemen and firemen (and not their
supervisors).

Please provide the link to the report and consider this question answered.
Thanks,
Jamie

Bureau of Labor Statistics main page for all "Protective Service
Occupations:"  http://www.bls.gov/oes/2001/oes330000.htm
-contains links to all of the occupations under this category, including:

Police/Sheriff Patrol Officers: http://www.bls.gov/oes/2001/oes333051.htm
Firefighters: http://www.bls.gov/oes/2001/oes332011.htm

Glad I was able to help.