The U.S. Department of Justice conducts a census of federal, state, and local law enforcement every four years; the last census was conducted in 2004. According to a Bureau of Justice statistician, in 2004, females represented 16 percent of all employed federal law enforcement officers.

Moreover, about one-third of these female officers were members of a racial or ethnic minority, with Hispanics/Latinas representing the largest group at 33 percent. In its census, the Justice Department did not report the number of female law enforcement personnel at the state and local level. However, a 2001 study on the status of women in policing, conducted by the National Center for Women in Policing, indicated that females represent approximately 13 percent of state and local law enforcement personnel, with ...