These data are from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) 2011- 12 Survey of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies. In preparation for the survey, a universe list of 4-year and 2-year campuses was compiled using the United States Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The survey focused primarily on agencies serving 4-year universities and colleges with a fall headcount enrollment of 2,500 or more. In addition, 2-year institutions with 2,500 or more students and a sample of 4-year institutions with 1,000 to 2,499 students were surveyed. These campuses are covered in a separate report. Schools were classified according to the level of the highest proportion of degrees awarded. The survey excluded:

United States military academies and schools, for-profit institutions, schools operating primarily online. Of the 905 4-year campuses with 2,500 or more students identified as being potentially eligible for the 2011-12 survey, 861 reported that they were operating their own campus law enforcement agency. These 861 agencies were asked to provide data describing their personnel, functions, expenditures and pay, operations, equipment, computers and information systems, community policing activities, specialized units, and emergency preparedness activities. ICF International, with the assistance of BJS, served as the data collection agent. BJS also conducted surveys of campus law enforcement agencies covering the 1994-95 and 2004-05 school years. The reports produced from these surveys are available on the BJS Web site and data are available on the ICPSR Web site.