A new study shows that Alabama may not be the best place to be a police officer.
The financial website WalletHub says that Alabama ranks number 42 among states for people in law enforcement. High violent crime rates and the low percentage of homicide cases that are solved are factors in Alabama’s low ranking.
Jill Gonzalez is an analyst with WalletHub. She said there are other reasons for Alabama’s low score on the list.
“So, everything from the average starting salary is a little bit lower in Alabama to the growth potential of that. We also see that less training is required in Alabama, so we don’t consider that to be not a good thing," she said. "And there’s a lot of legislation there too. Everything from: investigation and prosecution on use of force by police officers, to body camera legislation. So that is where across the board Alabama could use some work.”
She said that although Alabama is ranked low, that doesn’t mean any of its neighboring states are in the same boat.
“Some of the states in the top 10 are California, Maryland, Ohio, Georgia, so definitely a range of different places," she said. "I think that it is interesting that there isn't a regional trend here in terms of where the best and worst places to be a police officer were.”
WalletHub looked at categories like training requirements, job hazards and protection as part of its rankings.