What's the difference between a police department and a sheriff's department?

Answer 1

Also, the sheriff is an elected official that can put you in jail for awhile with no charges if he doesn't like you. The generic police dept is not an elected department. They just eat donuts and bust speeders.

Answer 2

Sheriff Departments fall under the direction of a elected Sheriff of the County. A Police Station falls under the direction of a appointed Police Chief of the City.

Answer 3

The Police Department makes all the arrests in the city limits, and then hauls the violators to the County jail. Most cities do not have their own jail, but the County in which they live , maintains the jail. Then if the accident or crime is committed outside of the local city, the Sheriff then does the work. Many times the Police and Sheriff work together. Our taxpayers money supports both of these departments, to protect and help all the Citizens, in the cities and counties of where you live.

Answer 4

The first answer is right. Police work for a city and the sheriff deputies work for the county. At least that's the way it is in Ohio. Some cities contract with the sheriff's department that don't have their own police force so sheriff departments can also cover cities.

Answer 5

Police have jurstiction over the town or city. Sheriff's Department is coverage for the entire county. Although, the two departments can help each other. Law Enforcement Officers have arrest powers anywhere in the their state.`

Answer 6

A police department's Chief is an appointed position, usually by the mayor or a city council (elected officials). A sheriff is directly elected by the voters and within a set budget he manages the sheriff's department (controls hiring of officers, etc).

Answer 7

Police Deptments are run by the Chief of Police who is appointed by the local unit of Government. Sheriff's run Sheriff's Offices and are elected by the people of the community that the Sheriff's Office serves. Sheriff's deputies are usually the red headed step children of law enforcement. The state or locality usually doesn't pay them well and most Sheriff's can fire you for nothing because deputies are considered police officers they are considered "political appointees". The Sheriff's Office system is antiquated and ripe for corruption and should be done away with.

Answer 8

Usually police dept are ran by a city: Ex: LAPD

Sheriff Depts are the county/parish ran: EX: Bossier Parish
Sheriff Dept.

As far as jurisdiction: The Sheriff has it over the Parish and can make arrests etc in the City. The PD only has jurisdiction in the city. But all of course support each other.

Answer 9

the sheriff is pretty much the boss of everything and is voted, by the community into that status. the sheriff has the final call in about everything and the police officers do more of the enforcing of the laws and giving out the tickets. they are like the sheriff's mini me's, and they all have one thing in common, they want to be the sheriff.

Answer 10

In my state, the city police are responsible for law enforcement in the city limits and the sheriff is responsible for law enforcement in the unincorporated areas of the county. We do not have township police.

The sheriff is elected and the city police chief is appointed.

The sheriff is also responsible to serve civil process, enforce court orders, run the county jail (we don't have city jails), and conduct search and rescue operations.

In this state, all police officers (city/county/state) have equal law enforcement authority throughout the state, in or out of their primary jurisdiction, on or off duty.