Washington is among the best states for police officers, report finds. Here’s why
While the Seattle protests last summer sparked a wave of law enforcement officers to leave the city, Washington is still one of the best states to be a cop, a new report found.
WalletHub released a report ranking the best and worst states for police officers in 2021, and Washington was ranked No. 8.
The personal finance company determined its rankings by evaluating all 50 states and D.C. using three metrics: opportunity and competition; law enforcement training requirements; and job hazards and protections, according to the report.
Washington did best in the opportunity and competition category, where the state took 8th place. WalletHub analyzed the number of law enforcement officers per capita, average starting salary for police, median income, opportunity for growth, among other factors.
The state had the 3rd lowest number of law enforcement officers per capita, but it came in 5th for highest median income for officers, according to the report.
Washington was ranked No. 17 in the training requirements category and No. 33 in job hazards and protections.
Rounding out the top 10 states for law enforcement were:
- California
- Connecticut
- Maryland
- District of Columbia
- Ohio
- Illinois
- Colorado
- Washington
- Georgia
- Minnesota
Unrest in Seattle
Civil unrest in Seattle started five days after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who died while in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis. His death sparked an avalanche of protests across the nation.
Floyd died after now-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes, as three other officers chose not to intervene. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter during a trial that ended in April.
While most of the protests were peaceful, some of the demonstrations included clashes between rioters and police, and thefts, fires and other incidents.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan placed a 30-day ban on the use of tear gas for crowd control last summer, although police could still use flash-bang grenades, pepper spray and other crowd control tools and tactics under the ban, McClatchy News previously reported.
The Department of Justice under the Trump Administration identified Seattle, Portland and New York City as cities that “permitted violence and destruction of property” after issuing a memorandum titled “Reviewing Funding to State and Local Government Recipients That Are Permitting Anarchy, Violence, and Destruction in American Cities” in September.
The memorandum claimed Seattle “allowed anarchists and rioters” to establish the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone and “endorsed” the “lawlessness.”
After months of such protest, the city saw record numbers of officers leaving. In September, 39 officers left the department, six of which were fired, McClatchy previously reported.
But authorities still planned further cuts to the Seattle force, with budget reallocations for 2021 in the city’s “re-imagining” of police work.
This story was originally published May 10, 2021 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Washington is among the best states for police officers, report finds. Here’s why."