Who is responsible for patrolling streets in unincorporated areas in California?

Question

Is it the California Highway Patrol or the county sheriff's department? I know that every peace officer has full authority anywhere in the state, but I want to know who has the primary responsibility for unincorporated areas. Some county sheriff's websites say that they patrol unincorporated areas, and some don't. I have also heard from some sources that the CHP has this responsibility. If the county wants the CHP to patrol their unincorporated areas, do they need a contract or does the CHP do it as a matter of state law?
Thanks in advance.

PS I need this info for a project, I'm not trying to get out of a ticket or anything.

Thanks for the answers so far. I am basically wondering about enforcing traffic rules on surface streets, not on highways. For those of you who said "state highways", does this mean only highways that are like freeways, or all streets? For example, the county sheriff would be responsible for pulling someone over for running a red light in the contract cities, so would they do so in unincorporated areas as well?

Answer 1

It doesn't matter, the place has been totally taken over by eenei weenie beenie's.

Answer 2

Deputies generally patrol in the unincorporated areas of the County, however the Sheriff's Office has jurisdiction to act in any area of the County. Calls to the County 9-1-1 center for service within the boundaries of a city are usually routed to city police departments.

Answer 3

The Sheriff's Dept. is responsible for areas outside the city limits in the counties. Some areas also contract with the local Sheriff's Dept. to have them patrol instead of the expense ,etc. of having a local police department.
The CHP is primarily tasked with higway traffic safety and not normally mandated to perform a strictly law enforcement function, however, obviously they can.

Answer 4

California Highway Patrol
Address: 4030 Kiernan Avenue
City/State/Zip: Modesto, CA 95356
Telephone: [phone]
TTY: 800-735-2929
Fax: [phone]
Contact: Office Secretary / Dispatch
Hours: Office Hours - Monday-Friday / 8 am-5 pm (24 hr Road Patrol)
Notes: The state law enforcement agency that maintains exclusive jurisdiction over the freeways and jurisdiction over county roads and streets in unincorporated areas.
Languages Spoken: English, Spanish.
Email: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.chp.ca.gov

Answer 5

Actually, both do. The Sheriff's office will handle criminal activity and the Highway Patrol will handle traffic on the state highways. Often the duties overlap and both agencies may respond to the same incident. Of course, calls for back up & assistance would get a responce from both agencies.

Answer 6

particular, everywhere in California. it extremely is why they're named the CHP, because of fact the Highways bypass throughout the time of the State & the Counties & the cities. In otherwords, they're on the suited of the heap! The Sheriffs are for County aspects. The Police Departments are for city aspects. in spite of the undeniable fact that, any of those agencies can call on the different for assistence.