Illinois named 4th-best state for police officers, study says
With National Police Week kicking off next week, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2017's best and worst states to be a police officer.
Illinois ranked behind North Dakota, Connecticut and New York to place fourth in the rankings.
In order to determine the best states to pursue a career in law enforcement, WalletHub's analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 20 key indicators of police-friendliness. The dataset ranges from median income for law-enforcement officers to police deaths per 1,000 officers to state and local police-protection expenses per capita.
Illinois ranked first in median income for law-enforcement officers (adjusted for cost of living), twelfth for law-enforcement officers per capita, thirtieth for violent-crime rate, seventh for state and local police-protection expenses per capita, sixteenth for property-crime rate, eleventh in police deaths per 1,000 officers, and eighth in housing affordability.
WalletHub says "law-enforcement officers" includes police and sheriff's patrol officers, detectives and criminal investigators.
