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MAP MONDAY: The Best & Worst States to Be a Cop

In an analysis of the 50 states and Washington D.C., the Peach State didn’t fare too well.

Across agencies, there are more than 900,000 law enforcement officers in America, all of whom are well aware of the occupational hazards. Even still, the balance of finding an agency with enough benefits to outweigh increased hazard levels can be an issue…and it varies considerably by state.

We take a look in this week’s Map Monday.

Personal financial website WalletHub recently examined a number of data components including median income for law-enforcement officers, police deaths per 1,000 officers, state, and local police-protection expenses per capita across all 50 states and Washington D.C..

WalletHub reports:

To start, there’s a $63,380 mean annual wage that exceeds the $51,960 for all occupations. On top of that, there’s typically a generous benefits package that can include retirement-contribution matches, tuition assistance, ample leave time, a take-home vehicle, and access to health and fitness facilities. Officers also may begin drawing full retirement benefits as early as age 40, depending on when they entered the force.

Map is intereactive, story continues below.

Source: WalletHub
When it comes to the best states to be a police officer, WalletHub found the following:
Overall Rank
(1=Best)
State Total Score ‘Opportunity & Competition’ Rank ‘Job Hazards & Protections’ Rank ‘Quality of Life’ Rank
1 New York 60.19 4 11 10
2 Maryland 58.73 9 10 5
3 California 58.40 2 6 34
4 New Hampshire 56.23 25 9 2
5 Indiana 54.50 5 25 17
6 North Dakota 54.22 19 23 1
7 Minnesota 53.86 6 16 25
8 Massachusetts 53.76 3 12 43
9 New Jersey 52.90 15 2 36
10 Connecticut 52.80 39 4 8

 

The Peach State didn’t fare too well. Coming up in the bottom 10:

42 Alaska 40.42 17 45 32
43 Oklahoma 39.34 48 44 12
44 Georgia 38.79 37 30 49
45 Tennessee 38.48 31 39 47
46 South Carolina 37.75 35 43 39
47 Arizona 37.09 41 47 29
48 New Mexico 36.27 30 46 45
49 Kentucky 33.43 51 41 40
50 Arkansas 32.38 44 42 51
51 Louisiana 31.69 26 51 50

Jessica Szilagyi is a former Statewide Contributor for AllOnGeorgia.com.

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