Difference between Co/City Police, Sheriff and State Police?

Question

I'm looking to become involved in law enforcement as soon as I graduate college. However, I'm not sure of all the differences between the different classifications... I know Sheriffs involve arrest warrants and State Police are probably involved with more highway patrol... Anyway, any advice from current police or law enforcement officials would be helpful. Thanks!!!

My ultimate goal is to be involved in the FBI. I would LOVE to do crime scene investigation or help capture sex offenders via the internet. I can't do the FBI for at least another 9 years, 10 months (due to illegal activity)... so...

Answer 1

State Police enforce State Law, they typically are involved in patrolling state highways and interstates, however, they also have specialized units. There main function is enforcing State Law.

City Police Departments are involved in enforcing law within the local jurisdiction, primarily city limits. Each department has various specialized units and task forces, so not every city PD is the same.

County/Sheriff's Departments have the jurisdiction of the county, but primarily focus on those areas outside of city limits. County is usually involved in serving court documents/subpneas, evictions, civil commitments, etc. In addition, the county is responsible for manning the county jail and also work in the courts.

Most departments work collaboratively with each department and the roles are not concrete, but flexible depending on the situation.

Answer 2

It all depends on the state.... generally speaking

County (Sheriff) departments have the highest local law enforcement capacity. The Sheriff is the highest elected official in the county. The Sheriff has the power to kick Federal agents out of a county. They handle traffic, and all types of crime and investigations.

State Police is the highway patrol and often a state investigative arm, such as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) or the Georgia Beureu of Investigation (GBI). The highway patrol handles traffic homicides, smuggling, etc. The Investigative branch of the state law enforcement agency often has the crime lab (DNA, fingerprint analysis, etc), they keep the state databases on firearms, criminal records, sex offenders, etc. They also get involved in high crimes and major investigations that locals can't handle on their own. (Kidnappings, etc)

City Police are at the bottom of the food chain. Their budget usually is not as good, so they write a lot more tickets. They only have jurisdiction over a city, and they do not go outside of the city limits.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

The difference is about jurisdictions and responsibilities. Police tend to have jusrisdiction into crimes that occur within city limits. They may or may not have authority in other areas of the county in which they are located.

The County Sheriff has jursidiction over all the county and cities within the County- they have agreements that let the city police do their thing. The Sheriff is also responsible for protection in the Superior Courts, maintaining the jail and security in the jail and in some counties, has responsibility for the Coroner's Office.

The State Police have jurisdiction over state office buildings, security on state university and college campuses, and has authority for the protection of the governor and other officials. They may also have jurisdiction over the highways and freeways- which they may share with County and City law enforcement agencies.

All law enforcement agencies can serve and enforce arrest warrants.

Answer 5

I'm not sure of the functions in each state, but I can give you a rundown of the different agencies' function in the state of Kentucky.

The Kentucky State Police is a full service police agency with statewide jurisdiction. They perform all facets of investigation and enforcement.

The Sheriff is the highest law enforcement authority in his county. His deputies have county jurisdiction and are also full service enforcement peace officers. In addition to investigations and general enforcement they also provide security to the Courts of Justice, serve Process and perform transports of prisoners from jail to prison. Deputies are considered to be 'Officers of the Court' and are the only ones that can serve civil process besides subpoenas. The Sheriff in Kentucky does not run the jails. We have an elected Jailer that handles county jails.

Municipal police departments' jurisdiction is dependent on it's class, which is determined by population. Class IV cities and above have countywide jurisdiction but generally remain within the city limits. A city police officer is the only officer of the three that can enforce a city ordnance.

All three agencies otherwise have the same enforcement authority within their jurisdictions. All certified personnel are considered to be peace officers.

Hope all that wasn't confusing.

Answer 6

County Deputies work in corrections for the county jails, they also work in the courts as court deputies. If you are a patrol deputy on the road then you obviously cover the entire county in which you have jurisdiction. A deputy is more "on their own" because they are out on remote highways and interstates.
City police work in their city limits and townships, they enforce local municipal violations and state laws. They have limited work in the courts but they testify against defendants and provide incident reports for the courts. In my opinion, city police are more involved with their communities than deputies are because city police deal with the same people everday whereas deputies deal with many people from different cities.
State Patrol or state police officers patrol the major interstates and state highways. They provide extensive services in crash investigations, death investigations, etc. They are a very useful tool. Their main duties are patrolling state highways.
Good luck.

Answer 7

Actually, depending on location, all the listed agencies are pretty much the same with the exception of where their jurisdictions are.

The state have the ability to work anywhere within the state, the municipal police within the city, and county within the county.

Because of the nature of the agencies, sheriff's departments not only investigate crimes, in some agencies work traffic, but also handle the court service of civil issues as well.

The municipal police, of course, do everything within the confines of the city.

If you are obtaining a degree, you may also find interesting work in the criminal sciences of forensics work. Also you will have the ability to work with many of the federal agencies such as the FBI, DEA, ATF, USPS, and a myriad of other agencies.

Feel free to email me directly if you have further questions.

Best wishes.

Answer 8

From what I understand is city police are obviously within the city. The Sheriffs are for the county. And the state police are obviously the State. I'm pretty sure most State police do most of their work on highways. I'm not sure the difference in jobs between City and Sheriffs.

Answer 9

County police have jurisdiction and authority in their entire county and towns within the county. City or town police only have jurisdiction and authority in their assigned town or city. State police have jurisdiction and authority in the entire state. All police serve and execute warrants. State police do alot of highway patrol and investigation. They all pretty much do the same things it just depends on how small you want your boundries to be. I'm a cop in virginia, it's a broad field. Just do some research and decide on what you would like to do.

Answer 10

a police force is a small municipality, a sheriff is the county's, a trooper is a state government, and an fbi agent is a federal government. in order to cut down on corruption, increase efficiency, and take care of more crimes, they divide the duties. consider that if you were having an assault case, then it would take so much longer for the filing in a federal division than it would in a local. see also that organizing something that big is prohibitively expensive, if everything were based in DC? we'd be messed up. so it makes more sense to divide the labor, make different organizations responsible for different things.