Civilian oversight of county sheriffs, state by state
Who watches county sheriffs.
A public reference for civilian oversight of county sheriffs in the United States: the bodies that exist, their powers, and the reports they file.
3,062 counties 32 oversight bodies $32.06B in budgets on record 46 states
A public reference, not a campaign: this site records what oversight exists and its status, and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions. About this site →
The 3,000+ U.S. county sheriffs are the only directly-elected law-enforcement officials in the country, and the only ones who simultaneously run a jail. Civilian oversight of sheriffs is established state by state, and where it exists it is recorded in different places. This site indexes the bodies that exist, their statutes, and the reports they publish. Recent state legislative action is tracked on the Recent page.
States
| State | Counties | Total budget | Cost/resident | Total staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 67 | — | — | — |
| Arizona | 15 | — | — | — |
| Arkansas | 75 | — | — | — |
| California | 58 | $13.92B | $354 | 60,382 |
| Colorado | 64 | — | — | — |
| Delaware | 3 | — | — | — |
| Florida | 67 | $9.69B | $449 | — |
| Georgia | 159 | $2.2B | $221 | — |
| Idaho | 44 | — | — | — |
| Illinois | 102 | — | — | — |
| Indiana | 92 | — | — | — |
| Iowa | 99 | — | — | — |
| Kansas | 105 | — | — | — |
| Kentucky | 120 | — | — | — |
| Louisiana | 64 | — | — | — |
| Maine | 16 | — | — | — |
| Maryland | 24 | — | — | — |
| Massachusetts | 14 | — | — | — |
| Michigan | 83 | — | — | — |
| Minnesota | 87 | — | — | — |
| Mississippi | 82 | — | — | — |
| Missouri | 115 | — | — | — |
| Montana | 56 | — | — | — |
| Nebraska | 93 | — | — | — |
| Nevada | 17 | — | — | — |
| New Hampshire | 10 | — | — | — |
| New Jersey | 21 | — | — | — |
| New Mexico | 33 | — | — | — |
| New York | 62 | — | — | — |
| North Carolina | 100 | — | — | — |
| North Dakota | 53 | — | — | — |
| Ohio | 88 | — | — | — |
| Oklahoma | 77 | — | — | — |
| Oregon | 36 | — | — | — |
| Pennsylvania | 67 | — | — | — |
| South Carolina | 46 | — | — | — |
| South Dakota | 66 | — | — | — |
| Tennessee | 95 | — | — | — |
| Texas | 254 | $4.63B | $158 | — |
| Utah | 29 | — | — | — |
| Vermont | 14 | — | — | — |
| Virginia | 101 | — | — | — |
| Washington | 39 | $1.62B | $224 | — |
| West Virginia | 55 | — | — | — |
| Wisconsin | 72 | — | — | — |
| Wyoming | 23 | — | — | — |
Budget and staff figures are added per state as data sources are crawled. Cost/resident is the total sheriff budget divided by population, counting only the counties that report both. — = not yet available.
Hawaii, Alaska, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are not listed because none has an elected county sheriff system: Connecticut abolished its county sheriffs by constitutional amendment in 2000; Hawaii and Alaska never adopted one; Rhode Island has only state-level appointed sheriffs. See about for the history.