The Golden State is known for Hollywood, Silicon Valley, scenic nature — and now as the ideal place to have a career in law enforcement, according to a new report.
A WalletHub study named California as the best place to work as a police officer in the country. Right behind it in the top five are the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Maryland and Illinois.
The report used three main criteria to assemble its rankings: opportunity and competition, police training requirements, and job hazards and protection.
The opportunity category factored in metrics such as average starting salary, number of officers per capita, how many homicide cases are solved and how frequently officers are assaulted on the job.
California ranked third in opportunities, second in training requirements and 16th in job hazards.
D.C., meanwhile, ranked first in opportunities, third in training and 47th in job hazards — since it’s tied for dead last in high violent crime per capita. The nation’s capital did have the best metrics for the number of police officers per capita.
Still, many of the biggest cities in the top-ranked states are watching police resign en masse.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s 9,200 officers are short about 500 cops — with an additional 600 expected to leave or retire in the next year, according to the L.A. Times. San Francisco is in a similar boat, with its force size of about 1,500 well off its target number of 2,100, according to CBS News Bay Area.
D.C. has seen 400 officers leave its department since 2019, putting staffing at its lowest levels in decades.
