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May 23, 2026 PERF national survey shows police staffing rebounds to its 2022 level as agencies employ new hiring strategies
PERF members, For the past five years, PERF has surveyed its members about their staffing trends. In 2020, after the pandemic began and cities nationwide experienced mass demonstrations and disturbances, many of our members told us they were experiencing staffing crises because of drops in hiring and sharp increases in retirements and resignations. To learn more about what the field was experiencing, we asked our members about their staffing, hiring, resignation, and retirement trends in May 2021 and have annually resurveyed our members every year since. Last year’s survey findings included the following:
The survey results below include new information about our members’ staffing from 2021 through 2025. This year’s findings included the following:
We sent this survey to the 761 members who are chief executives of their agencies (chiefs, sheriffs, commissioners, etc.). We received responses from 39 states, the District of Columbia, and 2 Canadian provinces. Respondents included 172 local law enforcement agencies; 9 state agencies; 1 federal agency; 10 college, university, or school district agencies; and 5 transportation agencies. These agencies collectively employed more than 138,000 sworn officers on January 1 of this year. Of the 197 responses, 76 came from large agencies (250 or more sworn officers), 77 were from medium-sized agencies (50–249 sworn officers), and 44 were from small agencies (1–49 sworn officers). The large agencies employ approximately 92 percent of the officers represented in the survey, while medium-sized agencies employ seven percent and small agencies employ less than one percent. Staffing The survey asked for agencies’ total sworn staffing on January 1 of every year from 2022 through 2026. Total staffing dropped nearly 2 percent from January 1, 2022, to January 1, 2024, then rebounded to slightly above 2022 levels by January 1 of this year.
Larger agencies reported a staffing decrease of nearly two percent from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023. Their staffing levels stayed fairly consistent over the following two years, then increased approximately 1.4 percent over the course of 2025. Medium-sized and smaller agencies have seen staffing increases of at least 7.5 percent since 2022. Agencies of all sizes saw an increase in staffing during 2025.
Hirings The survey found that hiring has steadily increased since 2021. In 2025, respondents hired 17 percent more officers than in 2024 and 40 percent more than in 2021.
Large, medium-sized, and small agencies have all seen increases. Large agencies hired 42 percent more officers in 2025 than in 2021, while medium-sized and small agencies both hired approximately 27 percent more officers.
Agencies have tried a number of strategies to increase hiring in recent years, including offering hiring bonuses, lowering educational requirements, and simplifying hiring processes. With federal agencies offering signing bonuses as high as $70,000 or $75,000, there has been stiff competition for qualified applicants. Resignations The total number of resignations rose from 2021 to 2022, dropped in 2023 and 2024, then stayed stable in 2025. Responding agencies reported 15 percent fewer resignations in 2025 than in 2021.
In large agencies, resignations rose more than 15 percent from 2021 to 2022, decreased more than 28 percent from 2022 to 2024, then remained stable in 2025. There were about 17 percent fewer resignations in 2025 than in 2021. Resignations in medium-sized agencies rose nearly eight percent from 2021 to 2022, decreased nearly 16 percent from 2022 to 2024, then increased slightly in 2025. There were about 8 percent fewer resignations in 2025 than in 2021. In smaller agencies, resignations rose 60 percent from 2021 to 2022. That number steadily decreased from 2022 to 2025, but there were still 4 percent more resignations in 2025 than in 2021.
Agencies have implemented a range of strategies to retain officers, including establishing a child care center, paying retention bonuses, and employing a retention specialist to address the issues that may cause officers to leave the agency. Retirements Total retirements increased more than 16 percent from 2024 to 2025 but there were still approximately 8 percent fewer retirements in 2025 than in 2021.
Small and medium-sized agencies reported the number of retirements was more than 20 percent lower in 2025 than in 2021. In large agencies, the number of retirements rose 18 percent from 2024 to 2025 but was still approximately 8 percent lower in 2025 than in 2021.
Summary Taken together, this year’s and last year’s surveys find that total staffing has rebounded to its 2022 level but is still below where it was at the beginning of 2020. Hirings have risen steadily since 2020 and are well above where they were in 2019. Resignations leveled off in 2025 and are higher than in 2019 and 2020 but lower than in 2021–2023. After decreasing for the previous two years, retirements rose in 2025 but are lower than in 2020–2022. While hiring is up and staffing has improved somewhat, I still hear from many police chiefs and sheriffs that hiring is a challenge. Some agencies see fewer applicants than they did in the past, and in response they have had to rethink their hiring standards and processes. Is a college education more important than work experience? Does the hiring process need to take 6–12 months? Police leaders know that their best recruiters are their current officers. But many of those officers have had less enthusiasm for the profession over the past five years than they did in the past, and agencies are still seeing more officers retire or resign than they did in 2019. Chiefs tell me that they need to make heavy use of overtime to cover staffing shortages, and many younger officers would rather have time off than work overtime. Fortunately, hiring and staffing numbers have improved, so agencies must be doing something right. Thanks to all our members who took the time to fill out this survey, and to Deputy Director of Executive Development Matt Harman for overseeing this work. I hope you’re able to enjoy a great Memorial Day weekend with friends and family! Best, Chuck |
