If you want to be a police officer the numbers show you should want to be a police officer in Illinois, Illinois ranks much higher on this list than all of its neighbors including Missouri.

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According to a list put together from WalletHub.com, Illinois ranks as the 3rd Best State in the Country for Police Officers. Illinois comes in 3rd place only behind Connecticut in first place, and California in second, Illinois is followed by the District of Columbia, and Maryland in 4th and 5th places.

So how does WalletHub determine which places the states fall in? On the site they say...

"In order to determine the best states in which to pursue a law-enforcement career, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 30 key indicators of police-friendliness."

Those 30 key indicators are grouped into 3 main categories that the states are then ranked by, Illinois comes in 5th for opportunity and competition, and Illinois comes in 1st for Highest Median Income adjusted for cost of living. Illinois really stands out in the Midwest, being ranked 3rd is much higher than all of its neighbors, Iowa in 21st, Wisconsin 32nd, Indiana 22nd, and Missouri in 35th place, for our listeners across the river in Missouri, Missouri ranks really poorly 46th place in the opportunity and competition category. To see the full rankings for yourself just click here!

Personally, I love that I live in a state that is great for police officers, the police need support, and being in a state and a region that supports the police financially and gives them opportunities makes me proud.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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