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The State/Local-Police rate (number/1000) varies greatly among the states in the United States. (See table at end for 1996 rates.)
An interesting question to ask is: Is there any correlation between the State/Local-Police rate and the strength of the two political parties in the states?
I compared different state's State/Local-Police rate (SLPR) data for 1996 with the results of the 1996 presidential election for each state. (See table at end for votes in the 1996 election.) A correlation calculation yielded the following:
| Correlation | Rate |
| Democrat vote | +0.335 |
| Republican vote | -0.202 |
That is, the Democratic votes for the states had a 34% positive correlation with increasing SLPR and the Republican votes had a 20% negative correlation. States with high State/Local-Police rate vote more Democratic than Republican and vice versa.
|
| This is a plot of the State/Local-Police rate (SLPR) sorted by rank of the states compared to the Democratic votes and the Republican votes. (See table at end for the data.) Also shown are linear fits to the two votes. This shows visually the positive correlation of SLPR with the Democratic vote and the negative correlation with the Republican vote. Note the large difference between the highest state (New York with 39) and the lowest state (West Virginia with 16). |
What can one conclude from these results? Whatever factors cause the large disparity for State/Local-Police rates between the various states also cause those states to tend to vote Democratic.
My Republican native state, Oklahoma (rate=22), ranked 23 of 50 and my Republican adopted state, Virginia (rate=28), ranked 44 of 50 for increasing State/Local-Police rate in 1996.
| U.S. state/local police rate | 1996 election | |||
| State | Rate per 10,000 | Democrat | Republican | Rank |
| West Virginia | 16 | 51.5% | 36.8% | 1 |
| Kentucky | 17 | 45.8% | 44.9% | 2 |
| Minnesota | 17 | 51.1% | 35.0% | 3 |
| Vermont | 17 | 53.4% | 31.1% | 4 |
| Washington | 17 | 49.8% | 37.3% | 5 |
| Iowa | 18 | 50.3% | 39.9% | 6 |
| North Dakota | 18 | 40.1% | 46.9% | 7 |
| Utah | 18 | 33.3% | 54.4% | 8 |
| Indiana | 19 | 41.6% | 47.1% | 9 |
| Maine | 19 | 51.6% | 30.8% | 10 |
| Montana | 19 | 41.3% | 44.1% | 11 |
| Oregon | 19 | 47.2% | 39.1% | 12 |
| Nebraska | 20 | 35.0% | 53.7% | 13 |
| New Hampshire | 20 | 49.6% | 39.6% | 14 |
| South Dakota | 20 | 43.0% | 46.5% | 15 |
| Alaska | 21 | 33.3% | 50.8% | 16 |
| Idaho | 21 | 33.6% | 52.2% | 17 |
| Michigan | 21 | 51.7% | 38.5% | 18 |
| Mississippi | 21 | 44.1% | 49.2% | 19 |
| Ohio | 21 | 47.4% | 41.0% | 20 |
| Pennsylvania | 21 | 49.2% | 40.0% | 21 |
| California | 22 | 51.1% | 38.2% | 22 |
| Oklahoma | 22 | 40.4% | 48.3% | 23 |
| Alabama | 23 | 43.2% | 50.1% | 24 |
| Arizona | 23 | 46.5% | 44.3% | 25 |
| Arkansas | 23 | 53.7% | 36.8% | 26 |
| Delaware | 23 | 51.8% | 36.6% | 27 |
| North Carolina | 23 | 44.0% | 48.7% | 28 |
| South Carolina | 23 | 44.0% | 49.8% | 29 |
| Tennessee | 23 | 48.0% | 45.6% | 30 |
| Kansas | 24 | 36.1% | 54.3% | 31 |
| Missouri | 24 | 47.5% | 41.2% | 32 |
| New Mexico | 24 | 49.2% | 41.9% | 33 |
| Rhode Island | 24 | 59.7% | 26.8% | 34 |
| Hawaii | 25 | 56.9% | 31.6% | 35 |
| Texas | 25 | 43.8% | 48.8% | 36 |
| Wisconsin | 25 | 48.8% | 38.5% | 37 |
| Colorado | 26 | 44.4% | 45.8% | 38 |
| Connecticut | 26 | 52.8% | 34.7% | 39 |
| Florida | 26 | 48.0% | 42.3% | 40 |
| Georgia | 26 | 45.8% | 47.0% | 41 |
| Maryland | 27 | 54.3% | 38.3% | 42 |
| Nevada | 27 | 43.9% | 42.9% | 43 |
| Virginia | 28 | 45.1% | 47.1% | 44 |
| Massachusetts | 29 | 61.5% | 28.1% | 45 |
| Wyoming | 29 | 36.8% | 49.8% | 46 |
| Illinois | 32 | 54.3% | 36.8% | 47 |
| New Jersey | 35 | 53.7% | 35.9% | 48 |
| Louisiana | 37 | 52.0% | 39.9% | 49 |
| New York | 39 | 58.3% | 30.0% | 50 |
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