In this study, we examine how fiscal distress following the Great Recession may have affected police employment levels over the long-term, and how those effects may vary across sworn and civilian employees. Using data from a variety of sources including multiple waves of the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey and the UCR Police Employee Data, we construct rates of change in employment levels for sworn and civilian employees. We find that fiscal distress has a robust negative relationship on employment levels for both sworn and civilian employees, with a stronger effect on the civilian employee. We also find that economic vulnerability measures yield a positive relationship to police employment among sworn employees. Our findings suggest that the effects of fiscal distress are absorbed disproportionately toward civilian employees, and that broader economic vulnerability can result in at least short-term increases in sworn employment.