Law enforcement in Illinois is complex with many overlapping jurisdictions related to the
administrative divisions of Illinois The administrative divisions of Illinois are counties, townships, precincts, cities, towns, villages, and special-purpose districts. The basic subdivisions of Illinois are the 102 counties. Illinois has more units of local government than any othe ...
.
At the state level, there are at least eleven law enforcement agencies. At the county level, there are
sheriffs
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
,
forest preserve police and other
specialized police forces. At the local level, most cities and many villages have
municipal police
Municipal police, city police, or local police are law enforcement agencies that are under the control of local government. This includes the municipal government, where it is the smallest administrative subdivision. They receive funding ...
forces,
park district police forces, and even local specialized police forces. Many colleges also have their own
campus police
Campus police or university police in the United States and Canada are sworn police or peace officers employed by a college or university to protect that private property of the campus and surrounding areas and the people who live, work, and v ...
that are often sworn police officers.
In 2000, Illinois was ranked 4th in the U.S. in the number of full-time
sworn officers with 321 per 100,000 persons, behind
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
(415), New York (384), and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
(345).
In this ranking, only New York had a higher total population than Illinois. Illinois is also near the top of most law enforcement numbers lists, such as number of agencies per state, number of agencies with special jurisdictions, and number of local police agencies.
Even taking into account that Illinois is the fifth most populous state, many of the ratios are higher than more populated states.
List of law enforcement agencies
References
{{LawByState