Best States To Be A Cop: Where Does Connecticut Rank?

CONNECTICUT — In 1962, Congress established May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15 falls, as National Police Week. Although it might not have quite the ring of Shark Week, or get as much love as Administrative Professionals Day, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.

Just in time for Police Week 2021, personal finance website WalletHub wrangled the data to determine the best states to be a cop, and found that Connecticut ranked second, behind only California.

The researchers compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 30 key indicators of police-friendliness. Data included the median income for law-enforcement officers to police deaths per 1,000 officers to state and local police-protection expenses per capita.

The Connecticut ranking benefited from the state's low crime rate, but conversely got burned slightly by the relatively high rate of police deaths per capita here.

Here's how Connecticut stacked up along the major metrics (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• 27th – Median Income for Law-Enforcement Officers (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
• 17th – Median Income Growth for Law-Enforcement Officers
• 3rd – Violent-Crime Rate
• 17th – State & Local Police-Protection Expenses per Capita
• 29th – Police Deaths per 1,000 Officers

The highest-paid law enforcement officers — those with the greatest median income adjusted for cost of living — are found in Illinois, followed by Alaska and New Jersey. (Residents of the Land of Lincoln may have a beef: Illinois law enforcement charted the lowest number of homicide cases solved, according to the WalletHub survey.)

The law enforcement paychecks are growing fastest in Vermont, Maryland and Ohio, which can claim the highest median income growth for cops from 2019 to 2020. Police wages are the most stagnant in Kentucky, Massachusetts and Kansas.

Ahead of Connecticut in the category of the lowest violent crime rate were only New Hampshire and Maine, with Vermont and New Jersey rounding out the top five. The bullets are flying fastest in Alaska, New Mexico and the District of Columbia, all tied for dead-last in the violent crime category.

Experts agree that local police forces in 2020 got clobbered by both the coronavirus, and the public relations crisis following the death of George Floyd. The coronavirus has been cited for 63 of the 119 police line of duty deaths in 2021 as of May 4, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, more than half. The fallout from the Floyd controversy has caused a spike of early retirements in law enforcement agencies around the country.

"Given the current anti-police sentiment among certain factions of the population, I am surprised that agencies still have manageable numbers of applicants. As long as the mainstream media continues to sensationalize the few bad events, without reporting on the vast amount of good police do, we are going to continue to have civil disobedience," said Robert Peetz, a retired professor of criminal justice and law enforcement at Midland College.

The National Police Week schedule features a series of events, including seminars and a candlelight vigil. Due to the coronavirus, the candlelight vigil has been put off to Oct. 14, and the national police survivors conference to Oct. 15.