Why do police chiefs/sherrifs wear different ranks?

Question

DIfferent POlice CHiefs from different areas wear a different number of stars on thier collars and despite my experience of over 11 years in and around law enforcement both City Police Side and County Sheriff Side, no one has been able to explain it to me. My Police CHief back hoome wore 4 stars, but the sherriff wore 3, and the next county over the sheriff wore 2, and thepolice chief wore 2, is it a population thing? or a department size thing?

Answer 1

bcuz they r diff names but still police

Answer 2

Rank insignia vary from agency to agency as do the names of the ranks, it's simply a matter of tradition and preference in a particular agency. In my agency the Sheriff wears brass lettering that spells out "SHERIFF" on his collar. There is no defined relationship with sizes of agencies or jurisdictions, etc. Typically things run similar to the military with rank names and insignia. You will find a general trend that the chiefs/sheriff's of larger agencies will wear more stars (assuming they were stars) to allow for "deputy chiefs" and "undersheriffs" to wear fewer stars without having to invent a whole new rank insignia.

There may be some states that promote greater uniformity with badge shapes or styles, but in Georgia and many other states it is solely up to the local department to pick and choose their uniform, patches, badges, ranks. There are counties in Georgia that do not have the rank of Captain, others do not have Corporals. Some agency sew stipes onto uniform sleeves for corporals and sergeants, others use collar brass.

I always wondered what the rank names would be if Dr. Suess named them and what the insignia would look like....

Answer 3

The stars depends on the tradition of the police station. It can be traced back to the museum of uniforms as to how the practices were adopted.

Answer 4

Personal preference that started when that department started. They evolve over time, but I think that is probably the reason.

Happy Holidays.