Compare Occupations

	Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers	Emergency Management Directors	Detectives and Criminal Investigators	First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives	Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists
SUMMARY	15% Minimal Risk	9% Minimal Risk	15% Minimal Risk	13% Minimal Risk	17% Minimal Risk
JOB SCORE	7.7/10	6.8/10	6.7/10	7.8/10	6.1/10
POLLING	20% (Low Risk, Based on 738 votes)	33% (Low Risk, Based on 34 votes)	27% (Low Risk, Based on 416 votes)	18.4% (Minimal Risk, Based on 49 votes)	30% (Low Risk, Based on 42 votes)
GROWTH by year 2034	3.1%	3.0%	-0.7%	2.9%	2.6%
WAGES	$76,290 or $36.67 per hour	$86,130 or $41.41 per hour	$93,580 or $44.99 per hour	$105,980 or $50.95 per hour	$64,520 or $31.02 per hour
VOLUME as of 2024	666,990	12,570	110,790	153,130	86,820
SNOWFLAKE [?] The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
DESCRIPTION	Maintain order and protect life and property by enforcing local, tribal, state, or federal laws and ordinances. Perform a combination of the following duties: patrol a specific area; direct traffic; issue traffic summonses; investigate accidents; apprehend and arrest suspects, or serve legal processes of courts. Includes police officers working at educational institutions.	Plan and direct disaster response or crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g., nuclear power plant emergencies or hazardous materials spills) disasters or hostage situations.	Conduct investigations related to suspected violations of federal, state, or local laws to prevent or solve crimes.	Directly supervise and coordinate activities of members of police force.	Provide social services to assist in rehabilitation of law offenders in custody or on probation or parole. Make recommendations for actions involving formulation of rehabilitation plan and treatment of offender, including conditional release and education and employment stipulations.

Compare Occupations Side by Side

Curious how automation and AI could affect your career? Our comparison tool lets you view two or more jobs side by side, helping you quickly spot differences in risk level, pay, growth, and popularity. All of this is based on a mix of academic research, user polling, and official labour data.

Automation Risk

Each occupation shows a probability of automation. A higher score means machines and algorithms are more likely to take over the role in the future.

Job Score

A quick summary of how a job performs overall — factoring in wages, growth, volume, and automation risk. It’s a handy way to see the bigger picture at a glance.

Polling Data

Thousands of visitors cast their votes on how “automatable” each job feels. These community insights are shown alongside the calculated probabilities.

Growth & Wages

See how fast each occupation is projected to grow and what people earn on average. High wages don’t always mean high security — automation risk still matters.

Volume of Workers

Explore how many people currently work in each occupation and in which year the data was recorded. Popularity can affect how disruptive automation will be for the wider economy.

The Snowflake Diagram

Each snowflake visualises the balance between automation risk, wages, growth, and job volume. Bigger and greener areas mean stronger performance in that dimension.

Use this comparison page to research careers, guide students, or simply explore the future of work. All data is regularly updated to keep the results relevant.