States With Legal Codes That Govern Law Enforcement

Police hiring, training, and discipline
• Police collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) • Ballotpedia CBA dashboard •Reform proposals •CBA areas of inquiry and disagreement •Arguments about police collective bargaining • Index of articles about criminal justice policy
Click here for more analysis of police hiring, training, and disciplinary requirements by state and city on Ballotpedia

This page contains information from a Ballotpedia analysis about which states have legal codes that govern law enforcement. It is part of an analysis of police union collective bargaining agreements and related arrangements with police unions concerning hiring, training, and disciplinary requirements in the 50 states and top 100 cities by population.

According to the analysis, 45 states have legal codes that govern law enforcement as of December 2021.

This page features the following sections:

• Maps
• Background
• Summary of findings
• Results

Maps[edit]

Map showing which states have legal codes that govern law enforcement[edit]

Background[edit]

Through the lens of 40 research questions related to police hiring, training, and discipline, Ballotpedia examined the collective bargaining agreements, statutes, and regulatory codes governing the 50 states and the top 100 US cities by population.

Some of the hiring, training, and discipline standards for police officers not established by statutes or regulations arise from negotiations with police unions. Those negotiations are often codified in collective bargaining agreements. Those agreements are the contracts that states and cities sign following negotiations with police unions. Some states and cities restrict collective bargaining, but may still negotiate with police unions using other methods. After negotiating with the unions, those jurisdictions sometimes establish police standards through documents including memoranda of understanding or meet and confer agreements.

You can find lists of all the collective bargaining agreements and other documents used by Ballotpedia for this survey here for states and here for cities.

Summary of findings[edit]

Ballotpedia's analysis of state and city union policies produced the following key takeaways (as of December 2021):

• 45 states have legal codes that govern law enforcement
• 5 states did not have legal codes that govern law enforcement

Results[edit]

The table below includes each state in alphabetical order and indicates those that have legal codes that govern law enforcement. To see the provisions Ballotpedia used to support these results, click here.

• means that the jurisdiction has legal codes that govern law enforcement
• A means that the jurisdiction does not have legal codes that govern law enforcement
• NO CBA means that the jurisdiction does not have a collective bargaining agreement
• UNKNOWN means that Ballotpedia could not verify whether the jurisdiction had a collective bargaining agreement
• FOIA DENIED means that the jurisdiction rejected Ballotpedia's request to review any collective bargaining agreements

State	Has legal codes that govern law enforcement
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana	A
Maine
Maryland	A
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi	A
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey	A
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon	A
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

See also[edit]

• Police hiring, training, and disciplinary requirements by state and city

Footnotes[edit]