How many police and sheriff departments are there in the United
States?  How many have K9 units or K9 officers?

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Request for Question Clarification by thx1138-ga on 01 Nov 2002 08:03 PST

Hello dizwarner,

I have been researching your question for the past couple of hours and
I have the following information.

1.) I have the number of police and sheriff departments in the USA
(reported governmental figures, latest figures are for 2000) no
problem

But....

2.) I only have an estimated number of police dogs in the USA.

My question is, is the estimated number of police dogs acceptable to
you?  I should also point out that there are no official government
figures available, and the estimate I have found is based on
statements made by serving K9 officers?

Thank you.

THX1138

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Clarification of Question by dizwarner-ga on 01 Nov 2002 08:50 PST

Sure, I'll take the anecdotal information.  But it would be great to
have a sense of how many departments actually have a K9 unit where
they train and deploy dogs.  But I will take what you can find. 
Thansk so much!

Hello dizwarner and thank you for the question.

Thank you also for answering my clarification request. So far, I
havenīt been able to find out "how many departments actually have a K9
unit where
they train and deploy dogs" however, I have registered myself with the
"United States Police Canine Association" and have requested more
information from them.  I have requested to be notified when/if anyone
replies to my request and I will post the results here when/if I get
any.  You can also monitor the request by clicking here:
http://www.uspcak9.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.pl?board=generaltopics
The request titled "National K9 Statistics" is the one to watch for!

In the mean time, here is the information I was able to unearth (after
alot of digging! :)

According to the latest statistics (2000) available from the  U.S.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, the total number
of agencies is 17,784 of which there are 15,736 Police and Sheriff
departments.

Type of agency    Number of agencies             Number of 
                                         full-time sworn officers

Total...........................................796,518 
All State and local......17,784.................708,022 
Local police.............12,666.................440,920 
Sheriff.................. 3,070.................164,711 
Primary State................49..................56,348 
Special jurisdiction......1,376..................43,413 
Texas constable.............623...................2,630 
Federal* ........................................88,496 
*Non-military federal officers authorized to carry firearms and make 
arrests
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/lawenf.htm


(In 1999)
"There are nearly 5,200 police dogs in the United States."
"Ninety percent of police departments serving populations of 100,000
or more use dogs for police work; two-thirds of all local police
officers are employed in department that use dogs."
http://www.abacon.com/crim/exercise1999a.htm

(In 2001)
"As of the date of this letter, NAPWDA Master Trainers have certified
3800 police work dog teams, of which the accreditation is still
currently valid. Since 1983, NAPWDA Master Trainers have certified
more than 15,000 K9 teams in the United States."
http://www.napwda.com/info/

(October 05, 2002)
"Organizers of the memorial say there are 15,000 police dogs in the
United States, including bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs."
http://www.redding.com/news/stories/20021005lo007.shtml

For contact details of 106 K9 units in the USA click here:
http://www.policek9.com/policek9/policek9.htm



Thank you for the question and if you have any doubts regarding my
answer, please do not hesitate to ask for a clarification.  (You will
be automatically  notified by e-mail of any additions/updates I make
to this question)

Best regards

THX1138



Search strategy included:
k9 officers  statistics
://www.google.com/search?hl=pt&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=all&q=++k9+officers++statistics&btnG=Pesquisa+Google&lr=

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Clarification of Answer by thx1138-ga on 01 Nov 2002 11:32 PST

Hello again dizwarner,

and thank you for the nice rating and tip :)

Just to let you know we have had 1 reply to your question at the
"United States Police Canine Association" site.  Thinking about it, I
might be in breach of their copyright if I post the response word for
word here, but not to worry just click here:
http://www.uspcak9.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.pl?board=generaltopics&action=display&num=317
to visit their site and read the response.  As I suspected actual hard
numbers seem not to exist, however the person who kindly replied is
Russ Hess, Executive Director of the "United States Police Canine
Association" so I guess if he doesnīt know......nobody does? and he
does kindly provide a 'guesstimate'

Regards

THX1138

Great work--appreciate that more is forthcoming to fully answer my question.