Illinois Among Best States To Be A Police Officer: Study

ILLINOIS — It's no secret that being a police officer can be a dangerous job, and in recent years, some officers and police departments nationwide have fallen under great scrutiny. According to a new report from consumer finance site WalletHub, Illinois ranks among the top 10 states to be a cop.

Illinois comes in at No. 7, ranking higher than its neighbors:

• Indiana (13)
• Michigan (20)
• Iowa (31)
• Wisconsin (33)
• Missouri (42)
• Kentucky (46)

To determine the best states to pursue a law enforcement career, WalletHub says it compared the 50 states and District of Columbia based on 25 key indicators of "police-friendliness," such as opportunity and competition for jobs, job hazards and protections, and quality of life. Those three key metrics include factors such as average starting salary, median income for officers, assaults on police and police deaths per 1,000 officers, number of people killed by police per capita, road safety, violent crime rate and share of solved homicide cases.

Other factors under consideration include laws like police body camera legislation, presence of "red flag" laws that allow the seizure of guns before people can commit acts of violence and police-misconduct confidentiality laws. Read more about the methodology here.

The study ranked North Dakota as the best place to be a cop in the U.S., with Arkansas ranking last.

Illinois ranked seventh for opportunity and competition, 20th for job hazards and protection and 10th for quality of life. The Land of Lincoln also rated as having the highest median income for law enforcement officers and the second-highest housing affordability.

Find the full rankings here.

According to the study, more than 900,000 Americans are employed in law enforcement. The WalletHub study notes the inherent dangers of the job, saying, "In the past 10 years ... more than 1,500 police officers, including 129 in 2017 alone, died in the line of duty. Tens of thousands more were assaulted and injured."

Illinois reported six officer deaths in 2017, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. That includes thee officers who were killed in vehicle crashes: Bloomingdale Officer Raymond Anthony Murrell, who died in January; Illinois State Trooper Ryan Matthew Albin, who died in June; and Chicago Police Officer Andrew H. Van Vegten, who died in November, 20 years after sustaining injuries in a crash. One firearm death was reported in 2017 — that of Chicago Police Officer Bernard W. Domagala, who died in September, decades after he was wounded by gunfire. Rockford Patrol Officer Jaimie Cox was killed in November as a result of a vehicular assault, and Forest Preserves of Cook County Department of Law Enforcement K9 Drago died of heath exhaustion in June after being left in a patrol car.

So far in 2018, one officer death — that of Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer, killed by gunfire in February — has been reported in Illinois.

Image via Shutterstock