American Police
Discussion
This question comes from watching far far far too many American TV programmes, but it has left me very confused about the shear number of different types of police in the US, and how they work.
In big cities there seems to be the big city police LAPD, NYPD etc, then there seem to be the highway patrol, then there seems to be (and this is what I find confusing) the sheriffs, now in the TV shows there seems to be a Sheriff and a few Deputy's to each small town, but a certain amount of googleing tells me that this isn't true and in fact a sheriff is an over reaching elected role covering a county. Then there are the Marshall's, who seem to have another role yet again, not to mention the role of the FBI.
Is anyone able to give me a brief run down of how all these police sections fit together??
In big cities there seems to be the big city police LAPD, NYPD etc, then there seem to be the highway patrol, then there seems to be (and this is what I find confusing) the sheriffs, now in the TV shows there seems to be a Sheriff and a few Deputy's to each small town, but a certain amount of googleing tells me that this isn't true and in fact a sheriff is an over reaching elected role covering a county. Then there are the Marshall's, who seem to have another role yet again, not to mention the role of the FBI.
Is anyone able to give me a brief run down of how all these police sections fit together??
Matt Harper said:
They're all b
ds - just different coloured cars and different funny hats.
The worst are the Tennessee state troopers. Sneaky bds - just different coloured cars and different funny hats.ds have the audacity to drive around in brown Ford Crown Victorias that don't look like police cars until they're behind you when you're doing 10mph over the ever changing Tennessee freeway speed limits.Okay, maybe the Tennessee state troopers themselves aren't that bad, just the f
kwit that decided they should drive around in brown cars.
It tends to vary from state to state, like most anything else in America. I live in New Jersey, work in New York and used to live in Florida so I'll go with those.
Where I live in NJ we have the local police, in my case the Englewood Police Department as I live in the city of Englewood. If I call 911, they're who will show up and they have jurisdiction in the City of Englewood and handle almost all of the policing that goes on there. Then we have the Bergen County Police, they generally patrol county parks and a couple of dual carriageways in the county. There's the Bergen County Sheriff's office, they handle most anything related to the county jail, the courts, and I also think they are the ones who handle foreclosure evictions, etc. We also have the New Jersey State Police, they basically are the motorway police in our area, although they have statewide jurisdiction. If there is a very serious crime, the County and State police will get involved.
THe local police will have officers assigned to traffic duty, criminal investigation, patrol, parking duty, etc.
I work in Rockland County, NY. There the "towns" are townships and include many villages and hamlets, I work in Blauvelt, but it's not separately incorporated so we have the Orangetown Police as our local force. There's also the NY State Police, but, again, they mainly seem to patrol the Motorways. There's a quasi-motorway that runs through the Palisades Interstate Park in NY and NJ, that's patrolled by the Parkway Police and NY State Police and rarely the NJ state Police.
We also have the Port Authority Police, they cover bridges, ports, airports, etc. These are the cops at Newark and JFK Airports, Bridges, Tunnels, etc.
Now, the city of NY has its' own force, the NYPD, but there's a tremendous number of separate divisions there. You have transit police, they watch the buses and subways, housing police for the public housing developments (Think Council Estates from hell), Taxi and Limousine Commission Police to watch the Taxis and Car service cars, Parking Enforcement police, you name it.
In Orlando we had the Orange or Seminole County Sheriff's office which was, depending on the county, the effective police force for much of the area. The city of Orlando itself has its' own Police force, and the Florida Highway Patrol is in charge of interstates as well as any accident that occurs on a state road. THere were a few incorporated towns that did have their own police departments as well.
Where I live in NJ we have the local police, in my case the Englewood Police Department as I live in the city of Englewood. If I call 911, they're who will show up and they have jurisdiction in the City of Englewood and handle almost all of the policing that goes on there. Then we have the Bergen County Police, they generally patrol county parks and a couple of dual carriageways in the county. There's the Bergen County Sheriff's office, they handle most anything related to the county jail, the courts, and I also think they are the ones who handle foreclosure evictions, etc. We also have the New Jersey State Police, they basically are the motorway police in our area, although they have statewide jurisdiction. If there is a very serious crime, the County and State police will get involved.
THe local police will have officers assigned to traffic duty, criminal investigation, patrol, parking duty, etc.
I work in Rockland County, NY. There the "towns" are townships and include many villages and hamlets, I work in Blauvelt, but it's not separately incorporated so we have the Orangetown Police as our local force. There's also the NY State Police, but, again, they mainly seem to patrol the Motorways. There's a quasi-motorway that runs through the Palisades Interstate Park in NY and NJ, that's patrolled by the Parkway Police and NY State Police and rarely the NJ state Police.
We also have the Port Authority Police, they cover bridges, ports, airports, etc. These are the cops at Newark and JFK Airports, Bridges, Tunnels, etc.
Now, the city of NY has its' own force, the NYPD, but there's a tremendous number of separate divisions there. You have transit police, they watch the buses and subways, housing police for the public housing developments (Think Council Estates from hell), Taxi and Limousine Commission Police to watch the Taxis and Car service cars, Parking Enforcement police, you name it.
In Orlando we had the Orange or Seminole County Sheriff's office which was, depending on the county, the effective police force for much of the area. The city of Orlando itself has its' own Police force, and the Florida Highway Patrol is in charge of interstates as well as any accident that occurs on a state road. THere were a few incorporated towns that did have their own police departments as well.
Famous Graham said:
Where do State Troopers "fit" btw?
Capt Caddys post is quite comprehensive, to clarify: State Troopers carry out more or less all police funcions from traffic to homicides but if there is a local police force then the day to day stuff is left to the local guys.State troopers also run their own criminal databases. A local cop wanting to check someone or something would access the SBI. (sub S for F in FBI)
Sometimes some inner cities will get extra patrols by State troopers, this tends to somestimes pi$$ off the locals as it hits their overtime.
In New Jersey the Hospitals have police permanently employed, they ARE real cops but are not connected to State or local ones.
Famous Graham said:
Where do State Troopers "fit" btw?
State Troopers are pretty much the bottom of the heap in terms of salary and status (at least here in FL) which is probably why they are such miserable, petty and vindictive sons of bhes.Their core competency is writing speeding tickets and policing road accident scenes - neither of which require much in the way of inter-personal skills, compassion, merit-based decision-making etc.
They are often young, relatively inexperienced and hard-assed.
Essentially, if you give a military failure a buzz-cut, Smokie Bear hat, Tazer, 9 mil, bizarre jodphur-style pants and stick him in a black'n'cream Crown Vic with a tacit brief to ruin the day of as many people as possible, you have a typical FL State Trooper. Not that I'm biased or anything...
mechsympathy said:
Plotloss said:
mechsympathy said:
john_p said:
CTU
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