List of law enforcement agencies in the District of Columbia

District of Columbia flag

Badge of a Deputy U.S. Marshal

This is a list of law enforcement agencies in the District of Columbia.

According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics' 2008 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, the District has six local law enforcement agencies employing 4,262 sworn police officers, about 722 for each 100,000 residents. This is the highest proportion of police officers to citizens of any state or territory.

Listed by age

The oldest agencies are the:

• United States Marshals Service, founded September 24, 1789
• United States Park Police, founded in 1791 as park watchmen to guard federal property in DC
• United States Mint Police, founded in 1792
• United States Capitol Police, founded in 1828
• Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, founded in 1861 (took the place of DC City Watch, founded in 1802)
• United States Secret Service, founded July 5, 1865
• District of Columbia Protective Services Division, founded by Congress in 1899 under the Watchmen in Municipal Facilities Act

Primary DC law enforcement (local and federal)

Patch of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department

• District of Columbia Department of Corrections
• District of Columbia Housing Authority Police Department of Public Safety (Has city-wide jurisdiction throughout Metropolitan area)
• District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (local municipal police covering all of DC with approximately 3,800 officers)
• District of Columbia Protective Services Division
• District of Columbia Public Schools Police - Law Enforcement Division (has city-wide jurisdiction on 119 DCPS owned and leased properties)
• District of Columbia Public Library Police
• Metro Transit Police Department (has jurisdiction in Metro rail and near Metro bus stops in DC, VA, and MD; 526 officers)
• Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police (jurisdiction actually falls within specific locations in VA, Reagan National and Dulles airports; formerly FAA Police)
• United States Marshals (deputies at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia fulfill duties similar to those of a sheriff in local court matters, while deputies at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia perform more traditional and federal district court duties)
• United States Park Police (national parks federal police for the National Mall, monuments, parkways, and all national park service properties in D.C and surrounding regions; several hundred officers; shares jurisdiction with D.C. Metropolitan Police in addition to exercising federal authority)
• Washington National Cathedral Police (officers licensed by the MPD as special police officers)
• Washington Humane Society Law Enforcement (charted by Congress in 1870 to enforce the Districts anti-cruelty laws)

See also

• Crime in Washington, D.C.
• Law enforcement in the United States
• Federal law enforcement in the United States
• List of United States state and local law enforcement agencies