Murray State College leads the 2027 list of online law enforcement degree programs at the associate’s level, with a score of 56.3 out of 100. It charges an online student from another state $184.25 a credit and 45% of its transfer students earn a credential within eight years. The list holds 42 programs, 9 at the associate’s level, 25 at the bachelor’s level and 8 at the master’s level. Each one is at a school whose own page describes an online degree in law enforcement or policing, or names a concentration in it.
Associate’s Online Law Enforcement Degree Programs
9 of the 118 ranked online associate’s programs offer an online law enforcement degree, either in law enforcement or policing itself or through a concentration in it.
Murray State College is first on the list, scoring 56.3 out of 100.
The lowest cost per credit on the list is $151, at Northeast Community College.
Murray State College's Associate of Science in Criminal Justice can be completed 100% online with no set class times, and its Law Enforcement option awards course credit through CLEET certification.
100% online, with no set class times
60 credit hours on the degree check sheet
A Law Enforcement option awards credit through CLEET certification
Bluegrass Community and Technical College lists its Criminal Justice associate in applied science among the programs students can complete online, and the degree splits into corrections, criminal justice, law enforcement, and security and loss prevention tracks after a shared technical core.
Each track totals 61 to 64 credits
The program can be completed online
Students choose a Corrections, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, or Security and Loss Prevention track
Northeast Community College's Criminal Justice Associate of Arts splits into Law Enforcement and Corrections concentrations, taught in person in Norfolk, Nebraska and online, with Law Enforcement also in South Sioux City, Nebraska and in hybrid form.
61-65 credits over 2 years
Two concentrations: Law Enforcement and Corrections
Classes are offered in person in Norfolk, Nebraska or online
HACC's Criminal Justice associate degree can be completed entirely through distance education or at its Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Lancaster, Pennsylvania campuses, with a choice of a Law Enforcement or a General Transfer concentration.
62 total credits
Concentrations: Law Enforcement and General Transfer
The program can be completed entirely through distance education
ECTC’s Criminal Justice associate degree is built around tracks in corrections, criminal justice, law enforcement, and security and loss prevention, and the college lists it among the programs students can earn without coming to campus.
61-64 total credits
Students choose a corrections, criminal justice, law enforcement, or security and loss prevention track
ECTC lists the program among its online credentials
Sinclair's Criminal Justice Science department says its law enforcement and corrections associate degrees are 100% fully online, and the law enforcement degree prepares students to apply for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.
Law enforcement degree: 62-63 credit hours
Corrections degree: 60 credit hours
The law enforcement and corrections degrees are 100% fully online
Kingsborough's Criminal Justice, A.A. is a joint degree with John Jay College of Criminal Justice that prepares students to transfer into John Jay's bachelor's program, and the college lists it among the KCC Online degrees that can be completed fully online or on campus.
60 credits
Concentrations in Law Enforcement Studies or Law, Justice and Society
KCC Online lists the degree among those that can be completed fully online or on campus
Frederick Community College's Police Science A.A.S. is written for certified Maryland police officers: academy graduates receive 29 credits and finish the degree with 31 additional credits, online or in person.
The Police Science A.A.S. totals 60 credits
Academy graduates receive 29 credits toward the Police Science A.A.S.
West Kentucky Community and Technical College has every criminal justice associate student finish one track, in corrections, criminal justice, law enforcement, or security and loss prevention, and lists the associate degree among the credentials students can earn completely online.
The college lists the associate degree among credentials earned completely online
Each student completes one of the Corrections, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, or Security and Loss Prevention tracks
Full-time students can finish in two years
Progression requires a C or better in each CRJ course and a 2.0 cumulative GPA
$198 a credit, online rate
Read more
The Criminal Justice AAS at West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, Kentucky, pairs general education with a technical core that includes Introduction to Criminal Justice, Issues and Ethics in Criminal Justice, Criminal Investigations, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedures and a capstone, then requires one track: Corrections, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, or Security and Loss Prevention. The college lists the associate degree among the programs students may earn completely online, and the KCTCS catalog requires a grade of C or better in each CRJ course and a 2.0 cumulative grade point average to progress.
The college says a full-time student can earn the associate in applied science degree in two years. Students who have never taken a college class, or who took only dual-credit, SEEK or dual-enrolled classes in high school, apply as freshmen and send an official high school or GED transcript; students who have taken other college classes apply as transfer students. The program page notes that most employers will require a criminal background check and security clearance. The college also lists Corrections, Criminal Justice Core and Law Enforcement certificates.
westkentucky.kctcs.edu
Bachelor’s Online Law Enforcement Degree Programs
25 of the 187 ranked online bachelor’s programs offer an online law enforcement degree, either in law enforcement or policing itself or through a concentration in it.
University of Massachusetts-Lowell is first on the list, scoring 72.9 out of 100.
The lowest cost per credit on the list is $220, at University of the Cumberlands.
UMass Lowell offers its criminal justice bachelor's on campus and entirely online, with options in policing, corrections, homeland security and crime and mental health, plus a paralegal option that runs online only.
Maritime Law Enforcement; Organizational Law Enforcement Leadership
Online courses have no set login times.
APU offers both an online Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice with General, Entrepreneurship, Maritime Law Enforcement and Organizational Law Enforcement Leadership concentrations, and an online Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice built around a Digital Forensics concentration.
120 semester hours for each degree
Both degrees are offered online, with courses that start monthly
Minnesota (MN) Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Licensing Eligibility Track
CSP teaches its Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice fully online through CSP Global and on campus, with a 90-credit version beside the 120-credit degree and a Minnesota POST licensing eligibility track for online students.
120 credits, or 90 in the reduced-credit version
The online program is fully online and asynchronous
WIU's Bachelor of Science in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration can be completed online or at the Macomb, Illinois campus, and most majors spend a semester in an internship with a criminal justice or public safety agency.
SNHU teaches its Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice online with a general track or one of 8 specializations, and runs a separate Bachelor of Science in Justice Studies on its campus in Manchester, New Hampshire.
120 credits
The criminal justice degree is taught online in 8-week terms
SNHU accepts up to 90 transfer credits toward the degree
Westfield State's Criminal Justice, B.S. is offered on campus or online, and Massachusetts community college graduates can complete it entirely online through the university's degree completion program.
The degree is offered on campus or online
The major consists of 42 credits
Concentrations in Criminology, Law Enforcement and Homeland Security, and Rehabilitation and Restoration
ASU Online teaches its Criminology and Criminal Justice (BS) as 40 online classes of 7.5 weeks each, and also offers it with a concentration in policing or in community safety, law and social change.
120 credit hours across 40 classes
Each class runs 7.5 weeks
Policing and community safety, law and social change concentrations are offered online
The online program is asynchronous, with no required class meeting times.
Bemidji State's Criminal Justice, B.S. offers four emphases (Corrections, Police Science, Tribal Justice and Victimology), and the university says the program is offered 100% online and 100% on campus.
120 semester credits
The program is offered 100% online and 100% on campus
Emphases in Corrections, Police Science, Tribal Justice and Victimology
Franklin's B.S. Criminal Justice Administration is taught 100% online in 6- and 12-week courses, and Franklin lists 28 credit hours toward it for completing the Ohio Police Officer Training Academy.
100% online, with 6- and 12-week courses
Franklin lists 28 credit hours for the Ohio Police Officer Training Academy
120 semester hours, with up to 90 transfer credits accepted
Kean offers criminal justice as both a B.A., which students can take through its fully online Kean Global division, and a technical, applied B.S. listed under its campus in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Each degree requires 120 credits
The B.A. is offered online through Kean Global
B.A. students choose a law, corrections, policing or general track
Online bachelor’s programs in law enforcement, ranked 11 to 25
Rank and school
Degree or concentration
Cost per credit
Completion
Graduates
Format
Score
11
Stevenson University Owings Mills, MD
Law Enforcement Administration
$470
61%
45
Online
53.2
12
Lindenwood University Saint Charles, MO
Law Enforcement Academy Emphasis
$525
55%
62
Online or on campus
52.9
13
University of the Cumberlands Williamsburg, KY
Law Enforcement Management
$220
56%
49
Online or on campus
51.7
14
Park University Parkville, MO
Law Enforcement
$575
50%
92
Online or on campus
51.4
15
Purdue University Global West Lafayette, IN
Law Enforcement
$556.50
38%
385
Online
50.9
16
Western New Mexico University Silver City, NM
Policing
$292
59%
18
Online
47.3
17
Trine University-Regional/Non-Traditional Campuses Angola, IN
Indiana Law Enforcement
$399
62%
5
Online
46.9
18
University of Wisconsin-Platteville Platteville, WI
Law Enforcement
$658
62%
67
Online or on campus
46.7
19
University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE
Policing
$764
48%
208
Online or on campus
45.7
20
Post University Waterbury, CT
Law Enforcement
$629
28%
87
Online or on campus
42.2
21
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus Denver, CO
Law Enforcement
$1,137
51%
63
Online or on campus
40.7
22
Central State University Wilberforce, OH
Law Enforcement
$454
34%
204
Online
38.6
23
Salem University Salem, WV
Law Enforcement
$550
53%
15
Online
38.2
24
University of Colorado Colorado Springs Colorado Springs, CO
Law Enforcement
$935
48%
141
Online or on campus
33.5
25
The University of Tennessee-Martin Martin, TN
Law Enforcement
$608
51%
34
Online
31.4
Cost per credit is the rate the school’s page publishes, read between October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026, or else its 2023-24 IPEDS per-credit charge.
Master’s Online Law Enforcement Degree Programs
8 of the 57 ranked online master’s programs offer an online law enforcement degree, either in law enforcement or policing itself or through a concentration in it.
University of San Diego is first on the list, scoring 65.4 out of 100.
The lowest cost per credit on the list is $355, at University of the Cumberlands.
165.4
Master of Science in Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership
The University of San Diego's MS in Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership is a fully online leadership degree for working law enforcement and public safety professionals, with a curriculum USD says was developed with extensive input from law enforcement.
31 units
Fully online, with no on-campus requirement
Admission requires a bachelor's degree and at least two years of professional experience in law enforcement, public safety or a related field
Liberty University's Master of Science in Criminal Justice is a 36-credit-hour degree taught 100% online in 8-week courses or in a residential format on the Lynchburg, Virginia campus with an optional supervised thesis.
36 credit hours
Fully online in 8-week courses, or residential on the Lynchburg, Virginia campus
Grand Canyon University's online Master of Science in Criminal Justice comes with either a law enforcement emphasis, built on crime analysis and strategic planning, or a legal studies emphasis, built on legal research, legal communication and consulting.
38 semester credits for either emphasis
Courses are online and run 8 weeks
Admission requires an undergraduate degree with a 2.8 GPA, or a 2.5 unweighted GPA plus qualifying GMAT or GRE scores
John Jay's Criminal Justice MA can be taken on campus or completed fully online, and pairs a core in criminal justice theory, courts, policing, corrections, research methods and policy analysis with a specialization such as Police Administration or Terrorism Studies.
36 credits
Offered on campus or fully online
Admission requires a bachelor's degree, and the program looks for an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher
The online programs are flexible and let students study anywhere and anytime.
Cumberlands' online Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration pairs a justice administration core with one emphasis area chosen from fields such as corrections, law enforcement, juvenile justice and digital forensics.
Columbia College's Master of Science in Criminal Justice is a 100% online, management-focused, non-thesis degree in 8-week courses, and the college charges currently serving military members, their spouses and dependents a reduced graduate rate.
100% online, in 8-week courses with six sessions every year
Currently serving military members, spouses and dependents pay a reduced graduate rate
36 semester hours, non-thesis
An optional Law Enforcement Administration emphasis appears on the transcript
NIC Management Development for the Future graduates may receive up to 9 graduate credits
$600 a credit
Read more
The 36-semester-hour degree combines 12 hours of foundation courses, 15 hours of core courses and 9 hours of electives in research, policy, law and ethics, leadership, budgeting, crisis management and organizational administration, ending with a capstone in criminal justice policy development and evaluation. Students can take the Law Enforcement Administration emphasis, chosen from courses in standard operating procedures, law enforcement administration and community law enforcement, and it appears on the transcript. The program is 100% online, with 8-week courses and six sessions every year.
Admission requires a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher, a goal statement of 300 to 500 words and a professional resume; applicants below 3.0 can apply for conditional admission, which limits them to one course per session for two sessions. Students who completed the National Institute of Corrections Management Development for the Future program may be awarded up to 9 graduate credits. Columbia College's military-affiliated benefit sets a reduced graduate rate for current military members, spouses, dependents and installation employees.
The University of Arizona Global Campus teaches this master's online in accelerated 6-week courses, and every student completes a specialization in homeland security or in law enforcement and corrections administration.
39 credits, or 36 for students exempt from the introductory course
Courses run in accelerated 6-week sessions
Admission requires a bachelor's degree with a GPA of 2.0 or above
Up to 9 approved credits can be transferred in
$740 a credit, online rate
Read more
The Master of Science in Criminal Justice requires 39 credits. The core covers criminal justice policy and theory, criminological theory, constitutional and judicial processes, research methods, psychological factors in criminal justice, ethics, comparative criminal justice systems and victimology, and ends with a capstone in evaluation and program analysis. Students then choose one specialization track of three courses (9 credits): homeland security, or law enforcement and corrections administration. Courses are online and run in accelerated 6-week sessions.
Admission requires a bachelor's degree or a graduate degree from an approved accredited college or university with a GPA of 2.0 or above. Students with an undergraduate degree in criminal justice, or with undergraduate coursework in criminal justice, criminal law and constitutional law, are exempt from the introductory course and complete 36 credits instead. UAGC says the program is not designed to qualify a student for employment with a federal, state or local law enforcement agency, where academy training and certification may be required separately.
Albany State University teaches its Master of Science in Criminal Justice both face to face and fully online, and the online version is limited to the corrections and law enforcement concentrations.
30 semester hours
The degree is offered face to face and fully online
The online program offers the corrections and law enforcement concentrations
Admission requires a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
Read more
The degree is 30 semester hours: core courses in the foundations of criminal justice, the theory and philosophy of criminal justice, the organization and administration of the criminal justice system, and research methodology and statistics; 9 semester hours in one specialty area; and either a thesis or a non-thesis pair of courses, Technology and Criminal Justice and Criminal Justice Program Evaluation. The catalog lists specialties in corrections, forensic sciences, juvenile justice, law enforcement and public administration, while the online program offers only corrections and law enforcement. Every student passes a comprehensive examination in the core, statistics and methodology, and the chosen specialty.
Admission requires a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, official transcripts and two letters of recommendation, and applicants whose undergraduate degree is not in criminal justice first complete undergraduate criminal justice prerequisites with a B or better. Students must earn a B or better in every course and keep a 3.0 grade point average, and the catalog says course work from other graduate programs cannot be applied to the degree. Albany State says seriously committed students can complete it in one year.
catalog.asurams.edu
What Counts as an Online Law Enforcement Degree
An online law enforcement degree goes by more than one name, so the list reads each program’s profile and not a keyword. 5 of the 42 programs
carry the field in the name of the degree itself, and 37 name a concentration in it. The concentrations are called
Law Enforcement, Law Enforcement Track, Law Enforcement Studies, Police, Maritime Law Enforcement and Organizational Law Enforcement Leadership, and 12 more, each the school’s own wording.
A school that runs a campus degree and an online version of it is listed once, by its online degree, so every program here is one a student can take online.
The Jobs Behind the Degree
Most readers of this list are heading toward a uniform or a badge, and an online law enforcement degree covers only part of that route. The guides cover becoming a police officer,
becoming a detective and becoming an FBI agent.
BLS reports a median of $76,210 a year for police and sheriff's patrol officers and $93,790 for detectives and criminal investigators (May 2025).
A degree is not a peace officer license. Each state's officer standards board sets its own training and education rules, and an academy is run by an agency or a regional center rather than by the degree. The state pages give each state's rule from its own board or statute.
How This List Is Made
A list by student background, program feature or specialization is not a ranking of its own. It is the national online ranking at its level, kept to the programs whose school's own page states what the list is about, in the same order and with the same scores, so a program's position counts only the programs on that list. The price an online student from another state pays is the one scored, as on every online list. A program is on this list when the online degree its school describes is in law enforcement or policing, or names a concentration in it. The school pages behind it were read between October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026. The methodology page sets out the factors and weights.
Questions About the Online Law Enforcement Degree
What Is an Online Law Enforcement Degree?
On this list an online law enforcement degree is one that is in law enforcement or policing by its own name, or one that names a concentration in it. 5 programs carry the field in the degree’s name and 37 programs name a concentration, among the 42 listed at 41 schools. The words are each school’s, read from its program pages between October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026.
Which Online Law Enforcement Degree Comes First?
The online law enforcement degree that comes first depends on the level. Murray State College is first at the associate’s level, with a score of 56.3 out of 100. University of Massachusetts-Lowell is first at the bachelor’s level, with a score of 72.9 out of 100. University of San Diego is first at the master’s level, with a score of 65.4 out of 100. The order is the national online ranking’s, kept to the programs on this list, and that ranking scores cost, graduate earnings, completion, online experience, track record and program reputation.
How Much Does an Online Law Enforcement Degree Cost?
The median online law enforcement degree on the list costs $436 a credit for an online student from another state. At these schools the median out-of-state tuition and required fees for a full-time year is $13,570. At the associate’s level the cost per credit runs from $151 at Northeast Community College to $382. At the bachelor’s level the cost per credit runs from $220 at University of the Cumberlands to $1,137. At the master’s level the cost per credit runs from $355 at University of the Cumberlands to $855. The cheapest online degrees page orders the lowest per-credit rates.
Does an Online Law Enforcement Degree Make You a Police Officer?
No online law enforcement degree does that by itself. A degree is not a peace officer license. Each state's officer standards board sets its own training and education rules, and an academy is run by an agency or a regional center rather than by the degree. The state pages give each state's rule from its own board or statute. The state-by-state guide sets out each board’s rule.
Can I Study a Law Enforcement Degree on My Own Schedule?
8 programs on the list say on the school’s own page that classes need no set login or meeting times. Each card prints that line. The working adults list collects every online program that says so.
Sources for the Online Law Enforcement Degree List
Awards, charges, completion and online enrollment: the Department of Education's IPEDS data:
IPEDS completions and distance education, 2023-24; IPEDS tuition and fees and per-credit charges, 2023-24; IPEDS
graduation rates; and IPEDS Outcome Measures and fall 2024 enrollment, from the 2024 provisional release.
Programs are counted under the criminal justice codes in the federal CIP 43.01 series.
Program names, credit counts, formats, entry requirements and published prices: each school's own program pages, read between October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026.
