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How does the American police system work, like are county police less powerful than state police, and are county borders allowed to be crossed? Then there are sheriffs, marshalls and the CIA. All a bit confusing to me.
Question
#83843. Asked by deadlydalton. (Jul 26 07 5:26 PM)
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temujin2020
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The CIA is not in law enforcement & is concerned with
intelligence and counter-intelligence, and not counter
terrorism. The CIA tends to be reluctant to deal with the FBI for instance, because the FBI wants to arrest
terrorists early onw while the CIA wants to learn as
much as they can. I realize this does not answer your manin question, which I will leave for others. The CIA
is rather like your MI5 ( Security Service ) in this
respect. Also, the CIA is supposed to be for foreign affairs solely. This has had to be modified a bit as we have foreign terroroist groups acting on U.S. soil.
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toughynutter
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It is not a matter of power but of jurisdictional territory. A town officer could just as easily arrest an FBI agent as the FBI arrest a town officer. It is just the FBI has jurisdiction over matters that encompass the entire country and fall outside the borders of a single state. Federal authorities are not evolved unless the individual matter involves crossing state boarders or a federally regulated institution. State officers have the jurisdiction of an entire state and are involved in matters that involve multiple cities or state institutions. Etc.
Often there can bee cooperation between different policing agencies but sadly turf wars are not uncommon.
In many more urbanized states county government is practically non-existent and that which does exist is full of political hacks (patronage jobs - high pay little work based on who you know and have helped out)
In Massachuesetts for instance Sheriffs and county government in general, only is related to the prison system and land deed. So in MA a sheriff has no jurisdiction in regular policing matters only those that relate to prisoners. Massachusetts has gone so far and abolished some county governments and there is pressure to eliminate all of them
 http://lwvma.org/govcounty.shtml
Each state is different in the power that counties have and therefore that of the policing force. In general the more rural the state the larger and more powerful county government is. That of course excludes Louisiana, which does not have counties, but rather Parishes.
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toughynutter
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General speaking Jurisdictional lines can be crossed in cases of "hot pursuit" when it is not feesable to transfer such an activity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pursuit
"Hot pursuit, a term in international treaty law (such as the Schengen Agreement) when law enforcement officers and agents of one country are allowed to cross the border into another country in a pursuit of a fleeing criminal "
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lanfranco
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I don't really think that dd's question has been properly answered.
First of all, forget the CIA, which is not a police organization. The FBI can and does work with police, but only on certain types of crimes.
Here in the U.S., different states have different systems. Any city or town of any size will have its own police force, which sometimes also looks after smaller communities in the area. A County Sheriff and his or her force may also take care of small communities that don't have their own police forces. The State Police in each state often take care of functions that a Sheriff's department or local police chief/marshal can't and may often oversee the highway system.
All of these agencies are supposed to work together when necessary. A sheriff in one county should be well known to the sheriffs in the adjacent counties, and police and sheriffs should know the State Police personnel, so that if jurisdictional problems arise, one agency can be prepared to take over from another. In different states, as temujin indicates, there are turf wars and hostilities, which can get in the way of efficient cooperation.
Mostly, however, a crime in a given area is handled by whoever normally oversees law enforcement in that area. A kidnapping will require the involvement of the FBI; as will a crime involving the crossing of state borders. Local police forces unused to dealing with certain types of crimes may ask for help from the County Sheriff, the State Police, or forces from nearby, larger cities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policing_in_the_United_States
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adam86107
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I dont have a refrence, but the easiest way to remember police "rank structure" so to say is:
City - has jurisdiction in just the city
County - has jurisdiction in the enitre county including the cities
State - has jurisdiction in the entire state
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deadlydalton
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Thank you all.It just seems to be a bit fractured to me.I had just been watching Forensic Detectives about a case involving four murders,all connectd and two neighbouring counties didn't have any information shared between them.Baffling.
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MonkeyOnALeash
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Here is more....
IN Counties that have both a County Police Force and a Sheriffs Office the Policing is usually left for the Police to handle while the Court Duty, Jail Management, Special Events (parades, civic gatherings, etc.), Evictions, Warrant Enforcement and Subpoenas are handled by the Sheriffs Office.
Whats more is that in these "dual enforcement" Counties the Sheriff does not USUALLY conduct Arrests nor "Routine Traffic Enforcement".
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