The Police Administration Survey collects data on police personnel and expenditures from each municipal, provincial and federal (RCMP) police service in Canada. First Nations police personnel and expenditures falling under the jurisdiction of the RCMP are reported under RCMP federal policing.

The following federal policing and security agencies are excluded from the survey: the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, railway and military police. Federal and provincial government departments deploying personnel to enforce specific statutes in the areas of income tax, customs and excise, immigration, fisheries and wildlife are also excluded. As well, private security guards and private investigators are not included in this survey.

Data presented in this report represent police personnel as of May 15, 2013 and final expenditures for the year 2012 (or 2012/2013 for those services operating on a fiscal year). Most municipal police services operate on a calendar year while the provincial services and the RCMP operate on a fiscal year.

Personnel counts are based on permanent, full-time equivalents; part-time employees are converted to full-time equivalents (e.g., 4 employees working 10 hours per week would equal 1 full-time employee working a 40-hour week). Police officers include the actual number of sworn police officers available for active duty as of May 15, 2013. Other employees include all civilian personnel, including clerks, dispatchers, managers, cadets, special constables, security officers, school crossing guards, and by-law enforcement officers.

Counts for temporary officers are not included in any of the police officer counts, as only permanent, full-time officers (and full-time equivalents) are included. Temporary police officers are hired to fill in, as needed, for permanent police officers. The province of Quebec employs more temporary police officers than any other jurisdiction. Of the 923 temporary officers reported in 2013, 816 or 88% were employed in Quebec.

Police expenditures are actual operating expenditures and include: salaries and wages, benefits, and other operating expenses such as accommodation costs, fuel, maintenance, etc. Capital expenditures, funding from external sources, revenues and recoveries are not included.

In 2013, the Police Administration Survey Program included the Supplemental questionnaire for the second time, which captured detailed information on hirings, departures, eligibility to retire, years of service, age, education, visible minority status and language. The majority of the information collected through this questionnaire is based on the familiar May 15 survey snapshot day. Other data, including those on annual hirings, departures and eligibility to retire, is collected based on the previous calendar year or fiscal year.

Some police services are unable to provide one or more of the data elements asked for on the Supplemental Police Administration Survey questionnaire. In these cases, the police services are excluded from related percent calculations and a note explaining coverage for the data element is included in the text or table.

Data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey are also included in this report to provide appropriate caseload context for the police in terms of the volume of criminal incidents coming to their attention. The UCR Survey collects police-reported crime and traffic offences reported by all police services in Canada, dating back to 1962, and is the basis for crime rate, Crime Severity Index and Violent Crime Severity Index information.