Evidence from credible sources supports the statement as accurate. Learn more in Methodology.
Official personnel counts and organizational comparisons confirm DHS employs more than 80,000 officers and agents and that no other federal law enforcement agency has a larger number of officers/agents.
The Department of Homeland Security’s own official materials state that it is “the largest federal law enforcement agency with approximately 80,000 officers across nine agencies and offices,” which aligns with the claim of having more than 80,000 officers and agents and being the largest federal law enforcement agency. Independent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2020 Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers show that DHS and its Office of Inspector General together employed about 66,410 of roughly 136,815 full-time federal law enforcement officers (about 49% of the total), substantially more than any other department, confirming DHS’s position as the largest federal law enforcement employer under standard statistical definitions. While BJS counts only officers with arrest and/or firearm authority (yielding a lower figure than DHS’s broader internal count of officers and agents), both sources agree that DHS is by far the largest federal law enforcement entity by personnel. Therefore, the statement is rated True because it accurately reflects DHS’s own reported staffing level (around 80,000 officers and agents) and correctly identifies DHS as the largest federal law enforcement agency by officer count.