According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, an estimated 11.7 million people were detained in prisons across the globe at the end of 2019. This translates to the population of entire countries such as Belgium, Tunisia, Bolivia, or Burundi. The number of people detained in prisons has increased by over 25% since 2000. While a majority of the people imprisoned over the last two decades are men, at around 93%, the number of women in prisons is rising at a faster pace, undergoing a 33% growth as compared to a 25% rise in men.
These growing numbers are being reflected in other trends in the industry as well. According to Grand View Research, the US law enforcement PPE (personal protective equipment) industry had a market size of $839.4 million in 2021. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.0% between 2022 and 2030. Since awareness regarding officer safety in riot control and tactical situations is gaining ground, it is positively impacting growth in this industry. Demand for law enforcement PPE, including face shields, protective clothing, respirator masks, goggles, and surgical masks, especially surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Various other trends are also materializing in the law enforcement industry. At the end of 2024, CNBC reported that police departments across the United States are beginning to use AI to write police reports. Various companies are developing AI tools to aid police departments in easing the burden of administrative tasks, with law enforcement focusing on slashing budget pressures and crime rates while retaining and recruiting staff.
However, legal experts are simultaneously raising red flags over the increasing use of AI in police work, citing concerns such as transparency, accuracy, and potential bias. These challenges can affect the future of AI in law enforcement and policing. A significant part of the impact depends upon the extent to which such tools are used and how they are adopted in the sector. CNBC reported that Utah State Senator Stephanie Pitcher, a defense attorney with Parker & McConkie, said the following about the situation:
“For all of the potential issues that AI technology creates in terms of admissibility of evidence, in terms of being completely transparent, in terms of trying to mitigate the biases that can be introduced into the system, I just don’t know that it’s worth it.”
We sifted through stock screeners, financial media reports, and ETFs to compile a list of 20 prison and law enforcement stocks and chose the top 11 with the highest analyst upside potential as of April 25, 2025. We also included the number of hedge fund holders for each stock as of fiscal Q4 2024, sourcing the hedge fund sentiment data from Insider Monkey’s database. The list is ordered in ascending order of analyst upside potential.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A U.S. Marine in full body armor standing in formation in a parade.
Analyst Upside: 34.65%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 12
Cadre Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CDRE) manufactures and distributes safety and survivability products, as well as other related items, for the law enforcement, military, and first responder markets. Its operations include the Product and Distribution segments. The Product segment comprises component manufacturing and selling products, while the Distribution segment acts as a one-stop shop for law enforcement agencies.
On April 13, analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu of Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on Cadre Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CDRE), reducing the price target to $40.00. The analyst said that the company’s strategic growth opportunities and solid financial performance supported this rating. The company ended fiscal Q4 2024 with a notable 41% year-over-year revenue growth, exceeding expectations by 3%. This growth was attributed to robust performance in the Armor and Duty Gear segments and successful acquisitions that helped Cadre Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CDRE) recover from previous challenges.
The analyst also opined that the company’s strategic initiatives, including potential M&A activities and integration of recent acquisitions, are anticipated to impact its financial outlook positively. Cadre Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CDRE) has also maintained a strong balance sheet and has manageable debt levels, which the analyst believes adds to the buy rating and gives it the 9th spot on our list of the best prison and law enforcement stocks to invest in now.
Overall, CDRE ranks 9th on our list of the best prison and law enforcement stocks to buy. While we acknowledge the potential for CDRE as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CDRE but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
