Why in some places in America a police department is called " Sheriff's Office " instead of Police Department? Do sheriff's offices exist only in smaller towns?

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marvsup@reddit

Speaking very broadly:

State-level: State Troopers

County-level: County Sheriff

City-level: Police Department

Sheriff's offices also are generally responsible for running the local jails, which is not the same as prison, which are generally run by the state. Jails are for people awaiting trial or serving a shorter or lesser sentence (often the split is less than 1 year). Prisons are for people serving longer sentences.

Sheriff's offices will also often provide courthouse security, but not always.

This is a very broad level view. A lot of counties will have county police.

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Wulfgar7134@reddit

I will add as a fun fact, since he is the only elected law enforcement officer, a sheriff is the only one legally allowed to arrest the president.

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SuspiciousZombie788@reddit

In some really rural areas, small towns often won't have their own city-level police force, (lack of staff, lack of funding, etc) so the county-level sheriff's department is the only law enforcement in those areas.

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idkbutithinkaboutit@reddit

Yes, this! It depends a lot on what part of the country you live in. There are big differences in how the local government is set up - including law enforcement. And, don't even get me started on fire protection!

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archmagi1@reddit

Here in Arkansas, these towns often have a volunteer cop or two, or a reserve officer, or an elected person with policing power called a constable. In my experience, the constables are often cop retirees who chill at City Hall drinking coffee all day.

One of the guys at work is a reserve officer. He does volunteer patrol at a couple of small towns every few weekends. Mostly traffic stops for people running the one stop sign or 911 assist for EMS.

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codefyre@reddit

In some really rural areas, small towns often won't have their own city-level police force

It's not just a rural thing. I live in California and can name a half dozen towns in this state that don't have police departments. San Clemente, which sits between Los Angeles and San Diego on the coast, has a median home price of $1.7 million, a population of more than 65,000, is probably the largest of them. The city has no police department and pays the Orange County sheriff's department to provide law enforcement services. They apparently decided that contracting LE services to the county was cheaper than running their own department.

Cupertino, in the middle of the SF Bay Area (one of the largest urban areas in the United States), is home to the headquarters of Apple Computer, Amazon Web Services, and Hewlett-Packard, some of the most expensive urban real estate in the country, and a population of about 60,000. It also has no police department and allows the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department to handle law enforcement in the city.

So it's not just a thing for tiny broke backwaters.

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OptatusCleary@reddit

Also, in some states anyway, places that seem like “small towns” are actually “unincorporated,” meaning that they actually aren’t towns or cities with their own government and services. These places will have sheriff’s department coverage instead of their own police.

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Lothar_Ecklord@reddit

Conversely, New England stands out in that very little of it is unincorporated, and counties/sheriffs’ powers are ceremonial at best. The Sheriff is mostly just there to keep the county jail staffed and to transport convicts.

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MarionberryPlus8474@reddit

True, Sheriff is not nearly as big here as in other areas of the country, nor is county government generally. In my state, county government is pretty much limited to jails, some courts, and registry of real estate deeds.

Oh, and there’s a coroner, which for some reason is elected, as though the average voter is informed on workings of a coroner’s office.

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trafficpylonfarmer@reddit

Indeed, Massachusetts abolished most of the county-level offices and moved their functions under town/state offices, since there are no unincorporated areas. The county boundaries still exist for various administrative distinctions and the court system.

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UglyInThMorning@reddit

Or state police! I grew up in one of those in NY. My neighbor was the sheriff but we were covered by the statues.

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

My county doesn't even have a town. We have one "village", but its mostly made of up of the local gov buildings and only a few houses. The majority of the population is either rural or lives in one large housing development.

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sharpshooter999@reddit

I live in a town of 350. We have a post office, mayor, town council, town maintenance guy, volunteer fire department. Our police is the one sheriff deputy and state trooper that live in town. Naturally, there's more troopers and deputies but they're scattered around the county as we have a number of towns with double digit populations and one with like 4k population

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macrocosm93@reddit

Not just really rural towns. I live in a city of around 14,000 near a coast but also have other towns that border mine that are larger for a total of about 70,000 - 80,000. My city doesn't have a police department and the Sheriff handles law enforcement here.

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Engine_Sweet@reddit

Rhode Island has no unincorporated areas and thus not much use for sheriffs or counties at all really.

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Additional-Ending@reddit

14k is a fairly large population with no dedicated pig patrol.

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Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit

This was similar to my experience growing up in Los Angeles County. Some cities had their own police department and some just had the county sheriff’s department. Now I’m in a rural area and we don’t have police, just the sheriff’s department from our county

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174wrestler@reddit

Even if it's an incorporated town, they may rely on the sheriff's services. How it generally works is the tax money that would have gone to the sheriff goes to the city/town instead.

Sometimes citizens are happy with the sheriff, so they may continue to ask for sheriff services and send the money back, maybe adding more money to hire additional officers.

I've seen a few places where it's actually the sheriff, but the city got them to change the logo on their cars and uniforms. It looks like the city police, but they get to benefit from economies of scale in administration, training, reserve forces, dispatch/911, etc.

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charcoal_kestrel@reddit

Not just rural areas. Some municipalities in Los Angeles county have their own cops (eg, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica) but about half the municipalities in Los Angeles get local police services from the sheriff. For instance, West Hollywood is sheriff's territory but it is not at all rural.

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strangemedia6@reddit

To add to this, in a lot of states (maybe all) each county has a sheriffs department with officers/deputies that patrol. They are responsible for any areas that are not incorporated municipal territory of a town/city. For example, the county I live in comprises six suburbs of a larger city. Each of these suburbs has its own city limits and is responsible for everything inside them. But some areas that aren’t developed yet or are rural are unincorporated territory. These areas are policed by the county sheriff department who has jurisdiction any where in the county that is not inside city limits. I used to have a neighbor that was a deputy and he told me they normally had 6-8 deputies on street patrol per shift, spread out to cover the various unincorporated areas around the county. This meant that often their backup could be 10-15 minutes away. Obviously if something really serious is going on, other departments would provide mutual support and get there quicker.

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awfulcrowded117@reddit

To add to this: sheriff is usually an elected position, with the sheriff often hiring deputies to assist with daily operation.

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Brave_Mess_3155@reddit

And not all sheriff's police are deputies. In cook county (the county Chicago and a bunch of its suburbs are in) they employ many sheriff officers that do the street level law enforcement. The deputies do more of a desk job like the sheriff himself.

Then there's New York city wich is so big it contains multiple counties (or boroughs) with in it. But I really dont know much about that at all. Perhaps a New Yorker could fill us in on how all that works.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

And not all sheriff's police are deputies. In cook county (the county Chicago and a bunch of its suburbs are in) they employ many sheriff officers that do the street level law enforcement. The deputies do more of a desk job like the sheriff himself.

That's definitely state-specific.

Around here, all sworn law enforcement of a Sheriff's Office are deputies. Non-deputy employees of the Sheriff's Office are non-sworn civil servants, like clerks.

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

I think the boroughs are essentially sub-cities, they aren’t in separate counties.

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BxAnnie@reddit

Each borough is its own county but we all fall under the umbrella of New York City. We each have our own court system and your jurisdiction is generally always the borough in which you live. If I’m called to state jury duty, it’s always in the Bronx because that’s where I live. If I’m arrested for a crime in the Bronx, my trial isn’t in Manhattan, it’s in the Bronx. Obviously if I’m arrested in another borough, THAT is where my trial would be, but for general purposes, each borough/county is its own court system.

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Jecter@reddit

Each borough is also a county.

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Mayor__Defacto@reddit

They’re administrative subdivisions of the City. They don’t have any independence.

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Puzzleheaded-Bee4698@reddit

The borough of the Bronx is coterminous with Bronx County. The borough of Manhattan is coterminous with New York County. The borough of Staten Island is coterminous with Richmond County. The borough of Queens is coterminous with Queens County. The Borough of Brooklyn with Kings County.

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QuentinEichenauer@reddit

Is there a Staten Island Sheriff?

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BxAnnie@reddit

Not in the typical sense. There is a sheriff’s office but it’s mostly an admin position - serving civil process, evictions, things like that - as opposed to law enforcement.

Every borough is a county for jurisdictional purposes but we all fall under the purview of New York City as far as laws and law enforcement. If you get arrested in the Bronx, your trial is in the Bronx, where your “peers” live. But each borough/county doesn’t have different laws or rules particular to that borough. And any New York City police officer has jurisdiction anywhere in the 5 boroughs.

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Jecter@reddit

The sheriffs are specifically for civil law enforcement for the department of finance. So its city wide.

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DickWhittingtonsCat@reddit

I wonder if Tom Dart ever loses or retires? Hes not particularly old- 64 or something. So could reasonably serve a couple more terms.

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LikelyNotSober@reddit

There is an NYC sheriff’s office, but it’s very small and handles mostly civil/financial cases for the city dept of finance. Most NYC residents have never met/seen of their officers.

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Mayor__Defacto@reddit

The Counties in the City of New York are vestigial entities that exist mostly on paper because the way the State is organized, there must be a County that every scrap of land is part of.

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FreeStateOfPortland@reddit

Chief if police is sometimes elected too

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big_sugi@reddit

I think elections for chief of police are relatively rare. I’ve only seen it in a few places in Louisiana, which makes it automatically weird.

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Plastic-Chest67@reddit

Considering that LA has Parrishes versus counties automatically make the state an outlier.

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Cerulean_IsFancyBlue@reddit

In this case, it’s mostly just a naming difference. Louisiana parishes have elected sheriffs, and as is often in the case when there’s a big city, the situation in Orleans Parish is weird. It doesn’t seem like the parish system has had much of an effect on Louisiana with regards to this particular issue.

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Sellum@reddit

It made getting a marriage license in Texas annoying, but that was probably more the clerk being obtuse. Part of the license required county of birth and they could not wrap their head around Orleans Parish and kept trying to tell me that wasn’t a real place.

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StrategyFlashy4526@reddit

No parishes in LA. There is LA County and the City of LA. Lots of what I would call villages or towns are called cities within LA county and City.

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AbbreviationsTop4959@reddit

They're referring Louisiana, not Los Angeles, though I can see your confusion

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Lauma_2025@reddit

Is Louisiana known for weirdness in particular?

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ExitingBear@reddit

Yes. For various historical reasons, Louisiana does it's own thing a lot of the time.

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Horror_Reason_5955@reddit

I got married in 1997 at 18 and moved to LA from OH. They were just starting to be able to refurbish some roads, because of whatever legal loophole they had had that let 18-20 year olds buy alcohol after the national drinking age raised to 21 and I believe they were punished by having federal funds held back over it. I'm not 100% certain of that fact (the funding issue) because we were brief military transplants and that could have been rumor. But LA definitely does it's own thing and gives 0 shytes!

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

Louisiana has parishes instead of counties, swamp people, New Orleans with Mardi Gras, alligators, etc. you can watch the 1997 documentary “The Waterboy” for further insights.

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Reddlegg99@reddit

Thats some high quality H2O.

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kashy87@reddit

Water sucks!

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Lauma_2025@reddit

I guess I never thought the parishes were too weird because that's just a standard Catholic term. And doesn't Florida have both alligators and crocodiles?

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AwkwarsLunchladyHugs@reddit

Yep, Florida does, although there aren't many crocodiles, and those are found way down in southern Florida. Alligators are also in Southeast Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

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beyondplutola@reddit

Louisiana was a French settlement. New York was Dutch. California and the Southwest was Spanish. The rest of the country was uptight English folk.

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WahooLion@reddit

Louisiana’s legal is not based on common law, but on the Napoleonic Code. Stanley Kowalski expounds on it when talking to his SIL Blanche.

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Lauma_2025@reddit

It's always Napoleon!

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Historical_Low4458@reddit

Louisiana law is........

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Intrepid_Practice956@reddit

Different.

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BoringPrinciple2542@reddit

To be fair, they are still half French in that regard.

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Rock-Wall-999@reddit

Louisiana claims to have the best politicians money can buy!

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StandByTheJAMs@reddit

Yeah I think generally the elected mayor appoints the chief of police, so while they’re not directly elected, they’re close-ish.

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Alternative-Pear9096@reddit

But city councils are who police chiefs report to, so it makes perfect sense. Mayor + city councils are who are the PD‘s boss.

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StandByTheJAMs@reddit

Like checks and balances? Sure wish we still had those.

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Alternative-Pear9096@reddit

Who said anything about checks and balances? The Chief of Police has a boss. She is hired, fired, supervised, and reports to City Council. Chief of Police isn’t some kind of act of god, they are city employees, with bosses.

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StandByTheJAMs@reddit

I don't understand why you don't understand what I said. The entire police department must be held accountable to every branch of local political enforcement. We can consider the mayor the executive branch, the city council the legislative branch, and the local judges the legislative branch.

Appointed by the mayor, reports to the City Council, and kept in check by the judges.

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etchedchampion@reddit

A lot of places don't have mayors.

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WonderfulProtection9@reddit

No? Heck even McDonalds has a mayor…

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etchedchampion@reddit

That's the technical difference between towns and cities in the US. Cities have mayors.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

I have never seen him running for reelection, though. What corruption is this?

Out with McCheese!

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taftpanda@reddit

Or the mayor is essentially an honorary system. Mosts places outside of large cities use city manager/council system, but so they don’t really have a mayor anymore.

My hometown uses that system, but one member of the city council is appointed mayor, which just means they preside over the meetings of the city council; they don’t have any actual executive power.

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Slight_Manufacturer6@reddit

Every town around here as small as population of 500 have a mayor.

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alwaysforgettingmyun@reddit

And sometimes it's a dog

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BorisTheHangman@reddit

Or a goat

https://texashighways.com/travel/daytripper/the-daytripper-meets-the-goat-mayor-of-lajitas/

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Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit

Usually only if it's legally a city.

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Cerulean_IsFancyBlue@reddit

More than half the top cities in the USA have an actual working mayor.

The rest have at least a ceremonial one but use a manager-council system for government.

Texas folks may think mayors are uncommon due to local bias because a lot of the big Texas cities are manager run.

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PrincebyChappelle@reddit

My City is the same, and the mayor gets an expense account for doing things like attending fundraisers and conferences, and most of them really like the expense account.

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fasterthanfood@reddit

And in those cities, the police chief usually isn’t appointed by the mayor, but by the city manager. The city council as a whole appoints the city manager, so the police chief is the twice removed from the voters.

That is, if there is a police chief. Contracting with the sheriff’s department is more common for council-manager cities.

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Sensitive_Sea_5586@reddit

Some cities have an elected mayor, while others have a city manager hired by the city council (or other legislative body at the local level).

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No-Lunch4249@reddit

Yeah but I bet theres a pretty strong correlation between places with mayors and places with an unelected chief of police

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Vespasian79@reddit

>In Louisiana

> which makes it automatically weird

Yeahhhhhh

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LeastInsurance8578@reddit

I’m in a small “city” in the St Louis suburbs, population of 10K and the police chief is elected, it’s more common than you think, especially in small places

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Slight_Manufacturer6@reddit

Most small towns around here are 1k to 5k and the chief isn’t elected here. (Minnesota)

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CronosWorks@reddit

Generally sheriff is elected, chief is appointed by the governing body of the city.

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FreeStateOfPortland@reddit

And I said “sometimes”. Chill out.

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Aquarius_K@reddit

Supposedly (according to true detective) in Louisiana nobody can arrest a sheriff other than the governor so there's that perk as well.

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heybud_letsparty@reddit

nailed it. nothing to add. this is one of the most to the point posts I've ever seen on reddit.

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os2mac@reddit

to add to the confusion some states don't have counties. Alaska has boroughs but they don't really have an organization or personnel like a county. Louisiana has Parishes (and I'm not sure of their organizational structure) but neither has "Sheriffs" that I am aware.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

Every parish in Louisiana does have a sheriff. According to Google they actually have additional duties as well.

In Louisiana, the Sheriff holds a unique dual role as both the chief law enforcement officer and the ex-officio tax collector for the parish.

They also serve warrants, guard jails and courts, and other things.

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os2mac@reddit

thanks, having only lived there briefly I was unaware.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

I looked it up because I was pretty sure I had heard about sheriffs in Louisiana before. I've never lived there but I have driven through and spent a few days here and there in Louisiana. I'm not sure the exact circumstances but I'm sure I've heard some kind of news story where a Louisiana sheriff was featured. I can't remember if it was a scandal or a good story. Knowing Louisiana it could be either. Maybe it was a Hurricane Katrina related thing.

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PossumJenkinsSoles@reddit

Where I live the city police only serve specific parts of the city so if you live outside those specific lines and need the police, you’re getting the sheriffs office instead

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Mr_Kittlesworth@reddit

In Virginia, because cities aren’t in counties, the cities often have both a police dept and sheriff’s office. The sheriff is elected and runs the jail as well as security for city buildings.

The police do traditional law enforcement.

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Fingers_9@reddit

Do the police have authority over the sheriff, or do they have different jurisdictions?

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marvsup@reddit

They typically have different jurisdictions, though I think you'd have to look at the specific set up in each place.

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BigPapaJava@reddit

I’ll add that in a lot of small towns, there may be no town police department, leaving all law enforcement and police duties to the County Sheriff.

One small town near me has its own police department, but it’s only 2 total officers. I’m not even sure why the town bothers.

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schmatteganai@reddit

Also at the local (usually state, sometimes more local) level: Department of Natural Resources Police/Game Wardens/etc. Reservations usually also have their own police force but that can be complicated; sometimes they're deputized under other local agencies, or vice versa. Local agencies' authority is generally very limited. State officials have no jurisdiction outside of their state.

Federal level (i.e. federal lands/buildings, and/or federal laws): Park Police, Capitol Police, Park Rangers, FBI, US Marshals, US Coast Guard, sometimes ICE/CBP/Secret Service/DEA/ATF/etc. depending on the issue and area.

When you see people talk about jurisdiction issues in dramas/documentaries, the overlaps here are what they're talking about. Not all of these agencies cooperate well with each other.

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ElijahNSRose@reddit

Correction: In cities the sherrif runs the jails. In rural areas the sheriff's deputies are the only police available. This leads to confusion in the press about which deputies can make arrests.

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SirRebelBeerThong@reddit

That's entirely dependent on where you live.

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nopointers@reddit

Absolutely true. In California any sworn law enforcement officer can make arrests anywhere in the state. A city police officer can arrest someone in any other city.

It’s very unusual for them to use that power, because they’re rarely in another city while on duty and whether on or off duty the extra paperwork is a pain in the ass. Much more likely if anything to detain someone and let a local officer make the arrest and deal with custody.

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courtd93@reddit

Plus some are overlaps. Philly is both a city and a county and so we have PPD and a sheriff’s department, which is known to be incredibly crooked and I know it most for handling sheriff sale’s for houses and the courthouse security

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Mayor__Defacto@reddit

Adding to this: as a general rule, Sheriff is an elected position, while the head of a Police Department is generally appointed.

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JohnnyC300@reddit

In many places, Sheriff's are also in charge of serving warrants, serving legal documents, collecting judgments. Stuff like that. Where I live, Sheriffs are involved in law enforcement at all. Just the Jail, warrants, and serving documents.

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You-Asked-Me@reddit

That is how it is in St. Louis. They do prisoner transport as well.

Our current Sherriff though he WAS the law. So anyway, he is in jail now awaiting trial.

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You-Asked-Me@reddit

This is also why I am struggling to watch DTF St. Louis. The writers did not even bother to Google St. Louis. I doubt they even know what state it's in.

The whole plot is a Country Sheriffs Department DETECTIVE, investigating a murder, and pulling jurisdiction over local police. The Sheriffs department does not have detectives, and does not investigate crimes, and also would not have jurisdiction over a municipal department.

I swear Jason Batman has dedicated himself to starring shows abbot Missouri, while not even being able to find it on a map.

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scumbagstaceysEx@reddit

I remember being confused as a teenager seeing a news story out of Florida saying “the Dade County Sheriff’s Office is investigating….” I was like why is the Sheriff investigating something? They don’t do that here (NJ). As far as I knew they just ran the county lockup.

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Murdy2020@reddit

I don't know about Dade County, but in rural unincorporated areas the sheriff's department is generally the primary law enforcement agency.

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Neverhere17@reddit

Unincorporated areas don't even have to be rural. I live in a condo building less than half a mile from the local city police station but my building is old enough that it was built before the area was incorporated so I am unincorporated and my law enforcement agency is the county sheriff. It's amusing.

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Euphoric_Loquat_8651@reddit

Even some small incorporated areas contract with the county to provide deputies for law enforcement rather than funding their own PD, but it isn't automatic like in unincorporated communities.

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grunkle_dan78@reddit

we've had a couple of small town police departments be disbanded here in the last decade or two, and the county sheriff's office has taken over jurisdiction.

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Phil_ODendron@reddit

They don’t do that here (NJ)

They absolutely do. Municipal courts only deal with low level offenses. Things like violent crimes and serious drug offenses are dealt with at the county level and will involve county sheriffs.

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scumbagstaceysEx@reddit

I wasn’t talking about courts. I was talking about sheriff or deputies doing investigations

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scumbagstaceysEx@reddit

Town police departments and NJSP

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Phil_ODendron@reddit

County sheriffs are involved in county level investigations.

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Phil_ODendron@reddit

Who do you think does these investigations if not the county sheriffs?

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chuckles65@reddit

In Florida all sheriffs offices do law enforcement work in the county. The sheriff is the chief law enforcmemt officer of the county. City's can have a PD but the sheriffs office still has jurisdiction inside the city.

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CountDown60@reddit

I live near Jacksonville FL. The city and county are exactly the same size and place. The main police force in Jacksonville is the JSO (Jacksonville Sherriffs Office. They do everything.

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William_Maguire@reddit

Where I grew up Sheriff's weren't involved in policing traffic. You could speed in front of them and they wouldn't pull you over. They would however radio for a city cop to get in front of you to catch you speeding

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Brave_Mess_3155@reddit

But to be fair these responsibilities can be almost if not just as dangerous as the city police's

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JohnnyC300@reddit

Yeah, we had a Sheriff get killed serving a warrant some years ago. Surely is dangerous, even if they aren't out there responding to 911 calls. Being a CO in a county jail is no walk in the park either.

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FalseBuddha@reddit

Sheriffs in my neck of the woods also handle evictions.

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Prestigious-Web4824@reddit

They also conduct sheriff's sales.

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Amockdfw89@reddit

Yea where I live the Constable does most of that work

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Plastic-Sentence9429@reddit

Yep. The Sheriff and Deputies are basically police where I work. They are responsible for Criminal Tresspass Warrants, and are who respond to 911 calls. A couple miles east, it's city police.

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Cmd3055@reddit

Additionally, in rural areas with lots of unincorporated areas the sheriffs department is the primary law enforcement agency outside of the city limits.

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ReddyKiloWit@reddit

It can get confusing. There are also marshals - sometimes confused with sheriffs - and constables. That latter title covers a lot of variety.

I remember in Texas constables were attached to courts, lower courts including Justice of the Peace. Sometimes elected, sometimes appointed. In some jurisdictions they had arrest powers along with serving warrants and carrying out other duties related to the courts.

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fried_clams@reddit

This really depends on the State. In my area of Massachusetts, the county and sheriffs are almost inconsequential, negligible. Everything is either local city by town, police or State Police. There is very little authority given to the county. There are vast areas of the United States where the county rules supreme and sheriff's rule

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Capital-Yogurt6148@reddit

Also adding on that is possible to live outside of a town (or in an unincorporated town), in which case, you don’t have a local police department and the sheriff’s department is who responds when you call 911.

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raknor88@reddit

Sheriff's offices also are generally responsible for running the local jails,

Also, some small towns are too small to have a local police department. So the county sheriff might have a spot in town instead.

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Zealousideal_Draw_94@reddit

This is mostly correct, except that State/highway patrols are one part of state law enforcement that mostly focuses on traffic & law enforcement on highways, and there is usually a second that focuses on investigation such as GBI, in Georgia or Texas Rangers in Texas.

County’s often have a police department that is separate from the city’s, and both departments have a separate area of jurisdiction. The Sheriff office has jurisdiction across both, mostly to serve warrants issued directly by the courts (as opposed to criminal warrants that each PD gets when going to arrest someone) and check on people on house arrest, or possibly even probation.

The Sheriff office will often send out a representative to scene of major events and be involved with joint operations such as DUI task force, or when the arrest a criminal ring.

Where I live the city/county were at one point were a metro department, but city and county could not agree to how much each government body would pay when it was up for renewal so they split it up. The City has a much bigger PD, but pays officers less. Many of the more experienced officers when with the county because salaries and better opportunities to advance.

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

I grew up in a fairly small country (by area, only a little over 100 sq miles). The city makes up about a quarter of that officially, and a major interstate cuts through, so you see state troopers, city cops and sheriff's deputies regularly in most areas there. They all just overlap except in the rural spots.

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Significant_Alps_399@reddit

Sounds like Joplin, MO

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nola_throwaway53826@reddit

And very often you see a cities with police departments also have a Sherrif's Office. Like in New Orleans, you have the New Orleans Police Department with a Police Commissioner chosen by the Mayor and confirmed by the city council who handles everyday police work and is responsible for primary law enforcement. You also have an elected Sheriff, which is not responsible for primary law enforcement, but handles security for the courts, as well as carrying out court orders like property seizures, and serving subpoenas. The Sheriff is also responsible for the jail, like the previous poster mentioned. The Sheriff for New Orleans is not appointed, but elected.

Other major cities have both, like New York City has the NYPD, and the New York City Sheriff. You also see cities like Los Angeles, which has the LAPD, but doesnt take up the entire Los Angeles county, which has its own Sheriffs department.

While almost every county has a Sheriff, only some municipalities have their own police force. Alaska has no Sheriffs and Connecticut did away with all county Sherrif's in 2000. Connecticut has State Marshals and Judicial Marshals handling those duties. Alaska uses State Troopers and Alasaka Judicial Services Officers.

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Significant_Alps_399@reddit

Alaska would never have divisions as dainty as a "county". You'd just lose your sheriff in the boonies a few days after electing him.

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Ok-Lavishness-349@reddit

And generally, sheriffs are who you call if you need to evict a tenant from a rental property.

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petg16@reddit

Not all are troopers… Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Texas Rangers

…OSBI, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, is the other half.

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Significant_Alps_399@reddit

Missouri is also Highway patrol

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marvsup@reddit

True

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Kathw13@reddit

We have both Texas Rangers and State Troopers. Different responsibilities. Also we have Game Wardens. Check out the Athena Strand murder trial. Two brothers did a lot of the prosecution testimony. One a Texas Ranger, the other a Game Warden.

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Little_Creme_5932@reddit

To add, sheriff comes from older English, in which the sheriff was the king's representative to the county. In the US, the sheriff has a similar function; the sheriff enforces the state laws within the county.

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anonsharksfan@reddit

Sheriff's departments are often the only law enforcement in rural counties. In urban and suburban counties, they generally handle the parts that aren't under control of cities.

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theycallmethevault@reddit

Adding on to this comment, u/EdicaranFauba, jails do house inmates with shorter sentences, but some inmates are there for years before they see trial.

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Mondschatten78@reddit

And if you're in a tiny town like I am, or your town's police department has been dissolved, then the county sheriff takes over the jurisdiction.

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LazyAmbition88@reddit

also Parks: Ranger (except in Texas, very different)

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fender8421@reddit

And sometimes (probably rarely) sheriffs have limited civil powers that the police don't have.

This was the case where I grew up. County had a police department and a sheriff's department; the latter was primarily for corrections, administrative, etc., but had a unique power of being able to dictate some civil disputes that the county police would just have to say, "We're only here so nobody assaults the other"

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vinyl1earthlink@reddit

There are states that don't have county government. Connecticut is one.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

It's a very good view though. That's exactly how it works in my state. Police officers work for police departments that are run by cities. Sheriff's deputies work for county sheriff's that are employed by the county.

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Otherwise-OhWell@reddit

The Sheriff also enforces property laws, at least where I've lived. So, when/if you get evicted, it's the sheriff's deputies who are putting your shit to the curb.

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MrsGaillard@reddit

Where I live in Texas the constable does that

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HarveyNix@reddit

And just to keep things confusing, here in Illinois, or at least in the Chicago area, we’ve got the “Cook County Sheriff’s Police.”

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dcbullet@reddit

This all sounds very inefficient.

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Brave_Mess_3155@reddit

Well said. And ill add that some small remote towns may not have a police force or only a very small one in wich case the sheriff's office will be called upon to handle the more intense or all law enforcement.

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WonderfulProtection9@reddit

I think that pretty much sums it up. With room for variations but I don’t know of any.

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Additional-Ending@reddit

Like Suffolk County on Long Island.

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XTanuki@reddit

Houston also has Constables, which I think are attached to the wards? Haven’t been there in a long time and hadn’t quite figured it out when I was there.

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Kathw13@reddit

In Texas, Constables mostly do civil stuff. They also do traffic enforcement.

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XTanuki@reddit

Got it, thanks for solving that old mystery!

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_WillCAD_@reddit

Indeed. Where I live, Baltimore County MD, we have both a police department and a sheriff's office. All 23 counties in MD have sheriffs, but only a handful also have police departments.

The City of Baltimore has both police and sheriff's departments. But unlike most cities and towns, Baltimore is a separate entity in the state of MD, not part of any county, almost like it's a county unto itself.

A lot of cities and towns both large and small have their own police departments.

Wikipedia has a list of all the LE agencies in the state at all levels, and it's surprisingly extensive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_agencies_in_Maryland

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PinkysAvenger@reddit

23 counties

Damn, I lived in DC for 6 years and I can only name 3.

4 if Annapolis is in "Annapolis County" but I presume that's wrong.

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pixievixie@reddit

That's how it is in my state too. Sheriff is county, Troopers are state and then most cities have their own PD. Sheriff covers unincorporated areas

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LockNessCrotchMonst@reddit

Some smaller towns don't have a police department and the sheriff patrol the town.

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FreeStateOfPortland@reddit

In some places like Oregon where there’s lots of unincorporated areas (even in metro areas) the sheriff often serves as law enforcement like a police department would. In, Beaverton Oregon where I live the, there’s Beaverton police but they’re just a division of the Washington Country Sheriff’s office

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EngineeringAble8471@reddit

Also they don’t exist in New England as we got rid of pretty much all county level government.

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Couldthisnamebetaken@reddit

This is the case in Mass. where some counties aren’t even geographically contiguous , but not necessarily the more rural states like Maine & VT which may have more unincorporated areas.

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ChemicallyAlteredVet@reddit

You mean the Sheriff in Murder She Wrote isn’t real or isn’t real anymore?

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Fearless_Market_3193@reddit

County Jail

State Prison

Federal Penitentiary

In broad terms.

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WhichWitch9402@reddit

This is how it is where I live. Sherriff's office/deputies also serve warrants and legal documents.

My neighbor had a crazy boyfriend and he lived in her house. He was doing all sorts of stuff and she had him trespassed. The local police took statement and arrested him (he was walking through our city with a gun coming back to her place and a bunch of people saw him and called 911.

while he was in jail she filed paperwork to get him gone. He showed up at the house and that's when the sheriff deputies arrived to serve him the paperwork, and watch while he got his stuff and left the property.

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TheMuffler42069@reddit

Also sheriffs are elected

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GrimSpirit42@reddit

Multiple layers of police forces: City = ‘Police’. County = ‘Sheriff’ State = ‘Trooper’ Federal = ‘Feds’

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levi070305@reddit

In some place state = Ranger

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Doone7@reddit

More than just Texas has Rangers?

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otterbarks@reddit

And in California, state = "Highway Patrol". Because all of California is just highways, I guess. :)

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ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit

Known for our highways that cross counties ig. Like the PCH or i5

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21stNow@reddit

There are some counties with police departments, like Prince George's and Montgomery Counties in Maryland.

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FinanceGuyHere@reddit

A sheriff is elected by citizens whereas the police chief is assigned by the government

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icecoldpotion@reddit

Not to be confused with constables.

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Doone7@reddit

How common are Texaa Rangers? Are they like Texas' version of SBI?

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GaryJM@reddit

What do you mean? What are constables in America?

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MyUsername2459@reddit

In some states, there are elected offices known as Constables.

For example, they exist in Kentucky, as a county-level office alongside the office of Sheriff. They're generally seen as antiquated and obsolete, but still existing because the Constitutional provision that creates them is still valid. Everything they do is redundant to the office of Sheriff, and under the law they've been stripped of much (but not all) of their legal authorities, but they still exist.

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HoustonPastafarian@reddit

Asking the hard question! Constables are specific to Texas, they are at county level (like Sheriffs) and led by an elected constable, but it’s done by county precinct (my county has four).

They tend to do things county sheriffs do in other states. They serve legal papers, act as bailiffs at county level courts, and do traffic enforcement on county controlled roads (like tollways in large cities) as well as some general law enforcement, but typically only in rural county areas to supplement the sheriff. In my county, they also contract out to neighborhoods to act as extra security (police and sheriffs cannot do this).

They are also regular law enforcement officers and can arrest people.

Confused? Yeah - most Americans aren’t familiar with them and even most Texans can’t really explain what they do.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

They also exist in Kentucky.

They are largely redundant to Sheriffs, and have been stripped of most of their authority by legislation, but as the office is created under the Kentucky Constitution as a Constable for each county, they can't abolish the office without a State Constitutional Amendment.

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Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit

They are not.

Pennsylvanian has had constables, for far longer then Texas has existed.

But has usual, Texans are all hat and no cattle.

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HoustonPastafarian@reddit

Thanks for the correction.

Not sure why the insult was warranted, but whatever.

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Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit

Because 23 States or Commonwealths in America have Constables.

For Christ’s sakes, Massachusetts had had constables since 1632. Pennsylvania since 1664.

Mayhap you should open a history text, or not, as Texans so often do, claim uniqueness when indeed it is just another hum drum and boring addition to America.

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icecoldpotion@reddit

You ok buddy?

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HoustonPastafarian@reddit

Stereotype much? I’m not even from Texas, I’m from the north. You don’t need to be a dick.

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Rogue_Cheeks98@reddit

Crazy I stumbled into this thread, and into your comment.

I am in Texas for the first time ever this week, and I was driving through Houston on my way to Katy and I saw a police car marked “constable” pull onto the highway and thought “what the fuck is a constable”.

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icecoldpotion@reddit

Lol. Been here my whole life and idk either.

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EdicaranFauna@reddit (OP)

Thanks for the replies everyone. I get it now.

America is truly a fascinating place. For me, it is hard to comprehend that every state has its own set of laws and rules. What's legal in one state may be illegal in another. I really can't fathom It lol.

Hopefully, one day I get to visit it.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

America is truly a fascinating place. For me, it is hard to comprehend that every state has its own set of laws and rules. What's legal in one state may be illegal in another. I really can't fathom It lol.

It's the concept of Federalism.

It's hardly unique to the US. Most large countries have a similar system. Australia and Canada have similar systems. India and Russia technically have a similar system, but in those countries the central government has a lot more power than the US Federal Government does. China is the only very large country without any elements of Federalism in its government, with the central government ultimately having all authority.

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ObligatoryAnxiety@reddit

Basic laws tend to overlap all states, but some states are better at enforcing those laws. This is part of the US being a Republic

We've got Federal laws at the national level, state laws, county laws, and city laws that may all overlap or differ. An example of a state law that might differ is marriage/divorce, property rights, and gun control. An example of how county law might most drastically differ could be "dry counties" which ban the sale of hard liquor. An example of city law differences might be even more gun control or smoke/vape bans and noise ordinances.

Generally speaking... be careful where you smoke, don't drive intoxicated, observe traffic law, be kind to others and you'll probably be just fine in the vast majority of the US.

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Shop-S-Marts@reddit

Sherriffs are county level enforcement. Police are city level

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Zahrad70@reddit

Every place with a police department also has a sheriff’s office.

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Popular-Local8354@reddit

Sheriffs are county police, and usually have an elected sheriff in charge.

Police departments are usually city or state, and are generally not run by an elected official.

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V-Right_In_2-V@reddit

Just to add a bizarre addendum, this is often why those loony sovereign citizens only acknowledge the validity of sheriffs, because they are elected. Unfortunately for them, city police officers must certainly do have the authority to arrest them

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MyUsername2459@reddit

Of course, sovereign citizens often can't even get that right. I've heard, in the midst of their pseudo-legal nonsense, them rambling on and on about the "Constitutional" role and authority of Sheriffs and THAT's why they're the only valid law enforcement, that supposedly they're the only law enforcement authorized under the US Constitution.

. . .the US Constitution says NOTHING about the office of Sheriff.

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Temporary_Pie2733@reddit

I think it’s also more common in the South? I grew up in PA, and law enforcement in the townships (anything in the county not part of a town/city/borough/etc) was handled by the State Police. Sheriffs were exclusively court officers. I haven’t lives anywhere rural enough in New England that didn’t have its own town police, so I’m not sure what happens here.

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Familiar-Attempt7249@reddit

I live in SE PA, originally in Philadelphia, then Delaware County for a bit, now Montgomery County. The city is also a county, so it has both police and a sheriff (police handle law enforcement and investigations, sheriff handles jails, warrants and the like). The towns in Delaware County and Montgomery County have their own police forces that cooperate at times). I know the counties have sheriff’s departments but I haven’t seen any deputies driving around.

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MiserableMemory5149@reddit

I've seen cars marked as sheriff's around Bucks and Berks, but unsure

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skeptical_phoenix@reddit

Correct. We don’t have many incorporated cities and towns (not even called townships) here in Maryland. Most things are county-level.

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anclwar@reddit

They aren't just court officers in PA. My husband is a deputy and while his job is tied to the court system, he himself is not a court officer. He spends about 90% of his time dealing in inmate extraditions and transfers and a large chunk of that is driving buses and vans of people to prisons, courthouses, court mandated rehab centers or sober living communities, etc. He spends very little time actually in the courthouse and even less time in a court room.

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Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit

With the exception of Allegheny county, where there is a special constitutional carve out, Sheriffs are not LW enforcement in Pennsylvania.

They are agents of the court.

Law enforcement is an executive branch function.

They can’t serve both masters.

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Temporary_Pie2733@reddit

That, I think, is what I meant by “court officer”, not someone (like a bailiff?) who only works inside the a courthouse.

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sarcasticorange@reddit

Just to add... state police are often called troopers. Also, there are the national level police with US Marshals and all the alphabet agencies (FBI, etc.)

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tcspears@reddit

Only the FBI is the national level “police”. Marshalls are like Sheriffs, where they have very limited roles, and the other “alphabet” agencies often are not involved in law enforcement or domestic matters.

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sarcasticorange@reddit

Everything you just said is wrong.

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tcspears@reddit

Which part? I can help clarify. Most of what we call the “alphabet” agencies are prohibited from operating within the US by charter, and do not interface with law enforcement.

The FBI is the equivalent of federal police.

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bawolvesfan@reddit

So OP, often yes, small towns do not have their own police department and rely on the county sheriff for law enforcement.

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Pinkfish_411@reddit

Though state police fill that role where county governments have been abolished and sheriffs don't exist, such as Connecticut.

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shelwood46@reddit

In PA & NJ, sheriffs/deputies exist, but they don't do law enforcement. They do subpoenas, evictions, and oversee the county jails, among other things, but actual law enforcement is either done by municipal police or state police.

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BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy@reddit

That would still be law enforcement technically. Guards/deputies in jails and prison are law enforcement.

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MortimerDongle@reddit

To be more precise, in Pennsylvania, sheriff's deputies are law enforcement but they are not police.

Sheriff's deputies are considered "Act 2" officers while police officers are "Act 120" officers. The primary difference is that "Act 2" officers cannot enforce non-criminal traffic offenses and their powers of arrest are limited to warrants and crimes that they personally witness and are ongoing

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big_sugi@reddit

Prison guards are not law enforcement. Or, at least, are not necessarily law enforcement.

Virginia, for example, defines “law enforcement officer” by statute. The only employees of the Department of Corrections who are law enforcement officers are “employee[s] with internal investigations authority designated by the Department of Corrections pursuant to subdivision 11 of § 53.1-10 or by the Department of Juvenile Justice pursuant to subdivision A 7 of § 66-3.”

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vwsslr200@reddit

My experience in MA and NH is even the dinkiest towns will have their own police department. Even if it's like, just one or two officers. State police mainly seem to be for highways.

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KeyCold7216@reddit

Where I live, the county sherrifs department is our main highway enforcement. Its very rare to see a state trooper until you get outside of the major cities.

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Pinkfish_411@reddit

There are quite a few Connecticut towns without police departments. My small town has a police department, but they only cover the more urbanized core of the town, while the outskirts rely on state police.

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scumbagstaceysEx@reddit

In very rural NY (Adirondacks) the only police you will ever see are the State Troopers. The Sheriff’s office is like one guy who spends all day serving process papers none of the towns are big enough to fund even one police officer.

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katlian@reddit

Sometimes they overlap too, such as state highway patrol that overlaps county and city jurisdictions, and they will provide assistance to each other.

About 20 years ago, our mayor got pulled over by the state troopers for drunk driving. When the local police stopped to help, the troopers told them to maybe sit this one out so they wouldn't have to arrest their boss.

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William_Maguire@reddit

My town of 900 does this. None of the city police work on the weekend, so the sheriff's respond to any calls and will drive through town maybe once a night.

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TheLizardKing89@reddit

They don’t have to be small towns. Lakewood is served by the LA County Sheriff’s Department and it has almost 90k people.

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kittenpantzen@reddit

Yep, I've lived in unincorporated county areas bordering mid-sized to large cities and our cops were the county sheriff's office.

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Rasp75@reddit

Santa Clarita is also the LA Sheriff's and it's far larger than Lakewood

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Vexonte@reddit

It can also be a very localized situation. My home town relied on the neighbors police department as much as they relied on the local sheriff.

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ProbablyAPotato1939@reddit

The small town that I grew up in has a city police department, but everyone always hated them, so whenever there was an issue people just called the sheriff to sort it out.

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ltsmash1200@reddit

You can also have county police that aren’t sheriffs. Maryland has state troopers, county police, sheriffs, and some cities have city police (like Baltimore).

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RecommendationLate80@reddit

Our small town police chief is elected. I think in the west most are elected.

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Popular-Local8354@reddit

Do you mean a sheriff? I’ve never seen city police with elected chiefs.

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ImLittleNana@reddit

I live in Louisiana and police chiefs are elected officials.

It’s a very political positions and you often see the police chief run for mayor because they’re so well known.

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CarolinCLH@reddit

But even big cities with a police department also have a sheriff at the county level even if they are not primary

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QnsConcrete@reddit

In Virginia, our cities have both police and sheriff departments. Cities don’t belong to counties so there is no county sheriff.

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zippoguaillo@reddit

Funny situation in Nashville the city merged with the county, so the police cover the whole. But there is still a sheriff who just manages the jail. There are a few other cities like that

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BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy@reddit

In Baton Rouge the city-parish government is merged but they still operate Baton Rouge Police and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Department separately.

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CharlesDickensABox@reddit

Yes. The sheriff is in charge of policing outside the municipal boundaries that are policed by the city. Sheriffs also have jurisdiction within the city, but they usually don't bother because there's already a city police force.

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Patient-Ad-7939@reddit

Yes! And my county doesn’t have incorporated towns, so it’s ask sheriffs office despite most of the county being suburban environments.

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Ryan1869@reddit

Sheriffs are also the ones that oversee local jails.

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misagale@reddit

That’s because jails are a county function.

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Odd_Mathematician654@reddit

Not always. Our city and the local township have their own municipal jail.

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misagale@reddit

Such a good example of why these “Ask An American” questions don’t really work. America is vast, each state, territory, region has different histories and legacy structures. I think it’s difficult to describe it always. There’s never one answer.

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zigziggy7@reddit

To add to this, a Sheriff if elected by popular vote and has jurisdiction over their entire county and are given state constitutionally protected authority.

A police chief is usually appointed by the mayor of that city and they only patrol that particular city they work in.

In American culture Sheriff's departments are usually seen as the chiller or cooler of the two. "Cops" or what we call the police are not as popular.

Anecdote: I've been pulled over speeding by a police officer where they gave me a ticket but the sheriff let me go with a warning.

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AAA515@reddit

And then there's state troopers and highway patrols and they're a bunch of a holes

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BigRichard1990@reddit

“Sheriff” is the word that comes down from “shire reeve”. In medieval England, knights and noblemen would appoint a competent commoner to handle their business interests when they were at war, hunting, wenching, or serving their own lord for weeks or months at at time. The “shire reeve” was an earl’s reeve, in charge of a whole county. In most of America, it is an elected official who is the head of a county police department. In cities and more urban counties, there is a police department with an appointed police chief. But often, there is also an elected sheriff who manages the jail and executes warrants and writs for judges. Evictions, serving summonses, arresting people on bench warrants. Not emergency calls and patrol. I think Los Angeles County is a patchwork of jurisdictions between LAPD and LA Sheriffs Department.

Reno, Nevada does not actually have a Sheriffs Department like on Reno 911, but has a Police Department. Great show, though.

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SirTwitchALot@reddit

To add to this. Really small towns may not have a police force of their own, and instead contract with the Sheriff to provide law enforcement. In cities that have their own police force, the Sheriff usually still has jurisdiction and can assist local law enforcement

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Norwester77@reddit

In my state, even some sizable cities have contracted for law enforcement with their county sheriff.

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mmarkmc@reddit

This had been my experience everywhere I’ve lived in California, with cities typically having their own police departments and county sheriff covering unincorporated areas and other specific areas of jurisdiction. Sometimes smaller cities will contract with the county sheriff’s office for law enforcement services.

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Artimesia@reddit

In my state, the sheriff is the county level of law enforcement. My town doesn’t have a local police department so it’s the sheriff that has jurisdiction.
Also, they provide security in few smaller courthouses in my state, otherwise we have marshals that secure the courthouses.

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FlowBoi1@reddit

Civil vs criminal as well. And don’t forget Constables.

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Equivalent-Speed-631@reddit

Where I live:

State Police - Provides statewide law enforcement, focusing on highway safety, criminal investigation, and specialized support for local agencies.

City Police Department - Primary law enforcement, traffic, and responding to calls within city boundaries.

County Sheriff’s Department - Operates throughout the county, including in the city for specific buildings. Patrol, court security, and managing the jail.

City Sheriff’s Department - Maintains safety and order in the courtrooms, serves legal documents such as summons, subpoenas, and evictions, transports inmates and mental patients to institutions and enforcing city ordinances and state laws, including emergency response.

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cinnamongirl73@reddit

I live in a semi rural part of Maryland. We have a State Police Department (the barracks), our town has a police department as well as a Sheriffs office. The “towns PD” doesn’t respond to my area as I’m outside the towns boundaries. But the State police usually deal with traffic and emergency calls, the Sheriffs department usually deals with warrants, etc., however, they are also support for the state and town PD’s, and they can, and will do traffic stops, respond with the State Police here. (I hope this makes sense-I’m typing this pre-coffee)!!!

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DharmaCub@reddit

Police are state or city, sherrifs are county. Sherrifs is an elected position, police chief is appointed.

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Cayetanus@reddit

Do all police departments have their own investigative divisions and similar units? I’m a police officer in Argentina, and I’m interested in understanding how it works there. Or are officers mainly focused on crime prevention and street patrol?

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vbsteez@reddit

Long Island has County, Town, and Village police.

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KevrobLurker@reddit

The LI village I grew up in had a constable, mostly responsible for mostly parking tickets. Every else was handled be the County Police.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_agencies_on_Long_Island

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KevrobLurker@reddit

Some LI villages have the county police take care of most enforcement, but a village may have a constable. The village I grew up in had just a few officer who mostly wrote parking tickets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_agencies_on_Long_Island

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-Boston-Terrier-@reddit

Which is a big reason I pay a over $30K a year in property taxes 🫠

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rcjhawkku@reddit

Oddly, Prince George’s County in Maryland has a Sheriff and County Police. Some incorporated cities, such as Bowie, also have a police department.

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ATLien_3000@reddit

Not that odd in more developed areas (even if they're unincorporated).

Most Northern Virginia counties have PD's.

Pretty much every county in core metro Atlanta has a county PD.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

Yeah, the county police in Georgia have different duties than the county sheriff's. In my county, the county police do police work, i.e. patrolling and enforcing traffic laws, investigating crimes, other standard police duties. The sheriff's office does completely different things, including operating and guarding the country jail, guarding prisoners, transporting prisoners, guarding the courthouse and guarding judges and other court workers during trials (defendants sometimes get a little agitated), hunting for fugitives and serving warrants, prisoner transfers to other law enforcement entities, etc.

There was a stupid Scottish, I think, yutz on Reddit once who showed a picture of a sheriff's deputy car which didn't have lights or sirens or a garish police car paint job because those probably weren't needed for the duties it was used for (you don't need open lights and sirens to transport a prisoner or maybe it was the sheriff's personal departmental vehicle) and said "Look at these stupid people with no lights and no siren going around just trying to trap people and arresting them for crimes. What we do here is drive around with lights and sirens and obvious markings to deter crime and prevent it from happening." What the poor guy didn't understand was he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. He thought the sheriff's car was a police car. It wasn't. For police patrols you have a police car. If that sheriff's car was used for hunting fugitives the last thing they wanted to do when they were looking for someone was to announce they were coming down the street with lights and the siren and fancy markings. The person would be long gone before they got there. It's a whole different job.

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osteologation@reddit

occasionally i see townships with their own police departments.

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shelwood46@reddit

That is extremely common in places in the Northeast.

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HappySummerCat@reddit

Usually. I know a town that elects their police chief.

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MeTieDoughtyWalker@reddit

Very different things.

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TheyVanishRidesAgain@reddit

Not wrong, but also not helpful.

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MeTieDoughtyWalker@reddit

Haha, I was going to type more, but I was going to bed so I just hit submit after my first sentence. Probably should have just let it go and not said anything.

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raceulfson@reddit

Sheriffs also cover places that aren't in cities or towns. Farms, for example.

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StoneyL0we@reddit

The sheriff is an elected county official with deputies under him, cops are city employees with a chief which is chosen by city officials and is generally just the best at being a suckup to get the job.

Oh, and they’re all vile scumfucks IMO.

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alltheblues@reddit

Sheriff’s office is usually county level. The Sheriff is elected by the people of the county, and thus by the election process accountable to the county population. They don’t have a direct boss, though the state government has authority over them, the exact way varies state by state.

Police departments are usually the law enforcement arm of a municipality, aka the government of a city, village, town, etc. They fall under the leadership of the municipality and police leadership is usually elected or appointed by the municipal leadership, though sometimes the public directly elects.

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Particular-Coat-5892@reddit

Reno 911 are sheriff. Brooklyn 99 are police. I will not be taking questions.

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MacheteTigre@reddit

The long answer to this is murkier and more complicated than it really needs to be, but the short one is this:

We sorta have 2 different categories of law enforcement: Sheriffs and Police.

Some places have one or the other, some have both. When they have both, usually the sheriff's office is more back end administration for handling prisons and courthouses and whatnot, while the police department would be doing more traditional policing. Theres also tiers of policing based on local, county, and state level and sometimes their duties are split along these lines. This would be the end of the short answer. Sheriffs often are elected, whereas police chiefs are appointed.

Now to do a surface level skim of the long answer:

You will also find in the US standard terminology for things virtually always has exceptions to the rule
(Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, and Massachusetts all define themselves as "commonwealths" rather than states, for example) This likewise applies to police forces both in terms of the police vs sheriff, as well as state troopers vs highway patrol which are ostensibly the same thing, and many many other things in the US.

Additionally, we have multiple tiers of police depending on the locale. Some, but not all, towns have their own local police force and/or sheriffs office. Sometimes its county wide, every state also has a variation of the State Trooper/Highway Patrol. Major cities also tend to have outsized police departments that can at times become involved in other matters within the state.. or in NYPD's case can function as essentially NYC's own international intelligence service, but that's its own can of worms. Ontop of that theres other types of police forces, ofcourse federally theres the US marshalls, DEA, and the FBI, and more broadly the DOJ in general. There's also DEA, ICE, CBP and other DHS agencies which fancy themselves police but I'd dispute that designation. Again, lots more cans of worms being opened there, but the easy way to think of it is DOJ agencies each are essentially some variation of federal police, and a number of DHS agencies also try to engage in law enforcement adjacent activities.

Anyway, you also have metro police, you have things like, for instance, maryland's MTA which is confusingly the transit police, as opposed to the metro police, or the state troopers, or hell there's the amtrak police, and then theres also park police. We have many many many flavors of overlapping police departments, especially the closer you get to a big city. Some colleges, and also government campuses, also have their own personal official police departments such as the UMBC police, or NIH police.

I haven't mentioned rangers or constables yet either, and honestly, I'm not going to, I have now written the word police enough times for a lifetime so I'm gonna wrap this up and just say it's a mess and digging into it will leave you more confused than before you start.

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Aquarius_K@reddit

Somebody has to police the area outside city limits. It's going to be up to state troopers or the sheriff's office. In my rural area the city police and sheriff office are right beside each other but the city police can't do much outside the city. Also the sheriff's office is where I go to pay property taxes and stuff.

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AwkwarsLunchladyHugs@reddit

Some rural areas may only have a county sheriff's office because there's not enough population for a city police department. Basically there are different jurisdictions involved - where I live, we have both city police and county sheriff's. The city police only have jurisdiction in the city limits, and the sheriff's office has jurisdiction over the county. Then there's state police that have jurisdiction in the entire state, but they usually defer to city police departments for crimes or issues that happen within city limits, but they do tend to work with county sheriff's more often. There's usually a lot of coordination going on between all 3, so every area of a state is covered.

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Senior-Cantaloupe-69@reddit

Sheriff cover the whole county and are officially higher legally, technically. Police are municipal. Sheriff are typically elected. Police chiefs are appointed by the city government.

In practice, the Sheriff run the jails and police the areas not covered by municipal police. They often work together and support each other

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distracted_x@reddit

A sheriff is an elected offical for the whole county and the sheriffs department patrols the highways and outside city limits.

The police department is for inside of each cities limits.

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Chance-Ad197@reddit

They enforce a different category of laws, sheriffs and sheriffs deputies are much closer to domestic servants than cops. They serve residential evictions, providing court room security, transporting prisoners between facilities, serving legal documents, traffic enforcement, enforcing of legal contracts, and what not. They definitely are law enforcement and will arrest you if they witness you committing a crime either on the road or on foot. They’re just not out paroling the streets for law breakers to enforce on. They’re enforcing civil law through communal servitude, just with the caveat that they serve whatever the law says, you can’t pay them to serve something of your declaration or hire them as a private army lol.

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drunkenwildmage@reddit

In Ohio, we’ve basically got three main types of law enforcement:

Ohio State Highway Patrol: They primarily handle traffic enforcement on state and federal highways, along with security at state government buildings and other state-level duties. They’ll also assist local agencies when needed. The Patrol is run by a Superintendent appointed by the Governor.

Sheriff’s Office: This usually breaks down into three areas—running the county jail, providing court security, and road patrol. Road deputies tend to cover rural areas and towns without their own police departments, and they’ll back up city/town police if requested. The Sheriff is elected.

City/Town/Township Police: Your typical local police departments. They handle day-to-day law enforcement within their jurisdictions and are led by a Chief appointed by the Mayor or a township Board of Trustees.

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No_Seaworthiness8176@reddit

There are also hybrid situations. The city of Eagle, Idaho (moderately affluent, but smaller) contracts with the Ada county sheriff's department to provide municipal police services. Eagle is immediately adjacent to Boise, Meridian and Garden City, each of which has an independent police department. And just for clarity, when I say adjacent, I mean you can tell you have changed municipalities by the color of the street signs. There is no intervening rural area. Cross the intersection, different city.

Same is true in Monte Sereno, California (Southern edge of Silicon Valley). Probably true in many places in the US.

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MattDinOC@reddit

Yep, in Orange County CA, the Sheriff’s Department is contracted by a bunch of the cities to handle law enforcement duties. I think none of those cities exceed 100k population. The bigger ones (and some smaller ones) have their own city PD.

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DukeofBraintree918@reddit

Simplest way to put it Most states have sheriffs who enforce laws on the county level (I believe there's two that don't maybe three)

Not every town has local police , some rely on the sheriff's to enforce the law

Each state handles their county system differently, and down south it means a lot more than it does in the Northeast.

Then States like Alaska and Louisiana don't even have counties

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tcspears@reddit

From the Northeast, many people might not know what county they live in, or even be able to name nearby counties…. I think we’re so densely populated that it just never comes up.

I was shocked going to the southeast that every knows, and identifies by, their counties.

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skeptical_phoenix@reddit

Correct. We don’t have many incorporated cities / towns here. Most things are county-level.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

Yes we get services directly from the county in many cases. I live in the city so I'm covered by city police and most other services but I do have to register my car with the county and get a license plate from the county. So I definitely have to know what county I'm in, and not only that, my county is displayed directly on my license plate. When you're driving around sitting at red lights, you have plenty of time to see what counties different people are from (we have 159 in the state). It's just a little bit like the license plate game where you look for license plates from other states. Red lights can be very exciting. ;) I also drive by the county jail periodically.

Oh, and I run a small business so I have to collect sales taxes to forward to the state and every county potentially has its own tax rate to go along with the state sales tax. The state is 4% but the surrounding counties have somewhat different rates, so the county I'm in is 8% total. One next door might be 7% or 6% or 8.75%. There are quite a few reasons to be aware of what county you're in. If I buy something for 10 bucks where I live it's $10.80 but if I go to the county next door it's going to be $10.90. That can make a difference when you're planning to buy something big in deciding where to buy it.

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DukeofBraintree918@reddit

I'm in Massachusetts as well, only reason I know about counties is because my county can claim to be county with most American presidents born in a single county....that's pretty much only time it ever comes up lol

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toilet_roll_rebel@reddit

In Virginia, it works like this: Cities, some towns, and large counties have police and sheriff departments. The police enforce the laws and sheriffs/deputies run the jails and serve as court officers. Smaller counties and town have sheriff departments that do both.

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Mysterious-Alps-4845@reddit

Occasionally Sheriffs can be very political. In Leadville Colorado the sheriff's office worked hard to take control of the Fire dept and Ambulance dept. This was years ago so I don't have current info but it seemed to be very ego driven. There were articles online.

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Build68@reddit

Sheriff is an elected position, usually in a county which encompasses unincorporated areas. Police chief is in an incorporated city, typically appointed by the mayor of the city. There are problems with both. Do you want me to break it down and explain it? Wish I could.

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Rock-Wall-999@reddit

In TX you can have incorporated cities completely surrounded by larger cities. The may have their own police, or hire law enforcement from the surrounding city or even the over all enveloping county!

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Purple-Measurement47@reddit

The Sheriff is generally an elected official, with deputies and are responsible for multiple towns in a county. They have less oversight than normal police departments, leading to a small number of okay ones and a large number of corrupt ones. They exist *generally* in places that don’t have funds for independent police departments.

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somecow@reddit

Sherrifs cover areas that don’t have city cops. But can do city too, if they’re want. They also run jails, if you get arrested by a city cop, yay, you belong to the sheriffs now.

We also have constables, similar to a sheriff, but they mostly handle civil matters (can definitely do criminal as well).

Even smaller, school cops, both for college/university, and grade school. Airport police are a thing too. And of course state troopers, they don’t always just focus on traffic tickets. Then there’s rangers, which mainly focus on fugitives, detective work, that sort of thing, same with the federal marshals. Of course then there’s FBI, ATF, DEA, but they’re feds. Even the IRS has their own police (one external, one for internal, definitely don’t want internal).

TL;DR we have a buttload of cops here.

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mcsteam98@reddit

i’m an american and i’ve never seen a sheriff outside wild western films and whatnot.

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StewReddit2@reddit

This can be/seem very confusing not only for a foreign to the country person looking in ....but frankly depending upon where one grew up and is used to.

We can speak broadly.....about Sheriffs being "county" vs PDs being "city" law enforcement

And we can make some sweeping generalizations based upon towns vs cities vs outlaying or rural areas.....where in some states it's more Ike to call a county Sheriffs that handles a large swath of area and cities vs bigger towns/cities may fund a city PD.

Yet, at the same time if you look at a City and County like Los Angeles there is both the LAPD and LASD

Where the LASD not only patrols the incorporated areas of LA county that are NOT part of the city of LA but they, also are the de facto "city police" by contract of about 42 separate cities within LA counties additional 87 cities other than Los Angeles.....

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OkiePanhandler@reddit

Police do law enforcement in incorporated cities and towns. Sheriff’s departments do it in unincorporated areas of the county.

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goodnsimple@reddit

In many places in the US, a county Sheriff has a lot of power. It can be amusing to watch mayors and governors argue with Sheriffs.

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BlissCrafter@reddit

Sheriff is county law, whatever happens outside city limits and for townships with no police. Police departments are only in town.

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Rays-R-Us@reddit

Police is city, sheriff is county. Sheriff can also organize a posse to go after the varmints that steal deeds to poor widows farms. Police can’t do that

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Last-End-3209@reddit

"Small" isn't the criteria - Sherriff's are County level - and as the entirety of Jacksonville, FL is the county of Duval - the Sherriff's Department covers 1 million+ residents.

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NotenStein@reddit

I live in Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles. The county sheriff is an elected official. His department actually provides the police forces for five of the cities in the county as well as coverage for the unincorporated area. The sheriff earns $347,000 a year. By comparison, pay for the police chief of Oxnard, the county's biggest city, is just over $251,000 a year. Those are not including benefits ($80 to $90,000 more per year).

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Nottacod@reddit

Usually in unincorporated areas, ie out of town or city limits.

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Puzzled_Hamster58@reddit

Sheriffs in like mass really just do court work , prisoner transfer etc . Other places the sheriff is elected . It really depends on the area and how it works .

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Automatic-Arm-532@reddit

Police are town/ city, sheriffs are county

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NVJAC@reddit

"Police department" and "Sheriff's Office" are different things and related to the US system of federalism and devolved layers of government.

From the top down, US government is organized as federal -> state -> county -> city. Each county is created by legislation from its state government and has a sheriff's office, the primary responsibility of which is to operate the county jail, with the head of the sheriff's office (the sheriff) being elected by that county's voters (in general, the county jail houses people convicted of lesser crimes, typically those with a sentence of less than 1 year incarceration, and people awaiting trial who can't afford or are denied bail). The sheriff's office also will typically provide patrol and law enforcement services in "unincorporated" areas of the county (i.e. places that aren't organized as cities), but normally it isn't required to do so.

A city is an incorporated government that typically will have its own charter but is otherwise subordinate to the county government. However, a city can have "home rule" status, which allows it to pass its own ordinances (laws) and act separately from the county government. In many cases a city will establish its own police department that operates separately from the sheriff's office, with the head of the police department (typically referred to as the "police chief") hired by the city government as opposed to being elected.

A city is not required to have its own police department though, and so sometimes small cities that decide they can't afford their own police department will contract with the sheriff's office for patrol and law enforcement services (normally this will be set up as the city paying the sheriff's office for a certain number of positions ("sheriff deputies") that are then dedicated to providing law enforcement within the city).

It's important to note that a city government is a legal process and has little or nothing to do with population. Famously, the Las Vegas Strip is actually in Paradise, Nevada, which is an unincorporated community within Clark County. So, it doesn't have a police department and instead relies on the sheriff's office for law enforcement services.

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fender8421@reddit

The most general answer is that the sheriff serves the unincorporated areas. If your town isn't an incorporated entity with its own department, the county sheriff covers that. Or you might have an incorporated town that still contracts with the county sheriff instead.

If your small town has a police department, the county sheriff can be used for back-up or specialized teams. If your big city has a police department, the county sheriff is still there for serving papers, running jails, courts, civil processes, etc

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Mr-Snarky@reddit

The county sheriff’s department is who provides police coverage where I live in rural Wisconsin. We don’t have a police department.

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YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO@reddit

2 different things.

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BreezyMcWeasel@reddit

As others have said, the sheriff deals with law enforcement matters outside of cities (and sometimes at court houses).

But what I haven't seen mentioned which is very different in the USA versus other countries, is we have no national police.

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GreatestState@reddit

In recent years “Sheriff’s Departments” have renamed themselves “Sheriff’s Offices.” I am. It sure why the Knox County Sheriff’s Department rebranded itself as the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

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NVJAC@reddit

IIRC the argument is that calling themselves "Office" emphasizes that they're a separate agency from the main county government and co-equal to the county commission, but "Department" implies that they're subordinate to the county commission and no different than the parks department or the roads department.

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GreatestState@reddit

It was a LE cultural thing that happened across hundreds of sheriff’s departments across the country over the past couple of decades

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segascream@reddit

Generally, Sheriff is an elected position, and they cover areas of the county that don't have a dedicated police force, as well as assisting those that do.

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Queasy-Flan2229@reddit

Why... is a police department called...
It's from dfferent types of jurisdictions and local/state differences. The 50 States are different, they don't have identical governments etc.

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TacitusCallahan@reddit

Sheriff offices are county level government entities while police departments are generally municipal (local) or state level. There are also county police agencies but they tend to be rarer. A sheriff is an elected official while a police chief is appointed by an elected official.

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Designer-Issue-6760@reddit

They serve two different functions. The sheriffs department works for the courts. Their main job is the capture of fugitives, and detention until they can be either released or transferred to DOC. While police handle day to day law enforcement. However, a lot of smaller tows either don’t have a municipal government, and are under the county, or just don’t have the need for a separate police department. So they contract the sheriff to serve as both.

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Last-Radish-9684@reddit

In Arizona, state level law enforcement officers are Troopers and work for Arizona Department of Public Safety, county level are (County) Sheriff's Office employees, city level are employed by the city. If the town is not large enough or has insufficient resources, it can contract for their Sheriff's Office to provide services.

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TJ_cannot_sleep@reddit

I live in a semi-rural small town area, with relatively heavily traveled highways between city limits of three different towns. The police handle traffic and crime within city limits, and the sheriff's office handle traffic and crime outside city limits.

The sheriff is county wide and is elected, with appointed deputies (that are usually career regardless of who is in office). The police are not elected.

I occasionally see a state cop near town, but more often I see them father away from city limits.

When I lived in a much larger city in the same state, I almost never saw sheriffs, but I'm sure they exist there too. I saw state cops on the freeway between that city and the next closest town.

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Lyfe-of-Luv@reddit

No a sheriff is an elected official of the county. Police are local to a city or township. In smaller areas they work with or as police.

So large cities like LA, NYC & Philly DO have sheriffs. Sheriffs outrank Police Chiefs.

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kmoonster@reddit

A Sherrif is usually an elected official and they usually handle jails, courthouse security, do evictions/etc., and often handle multiple municipalities and/or "unincorporated" areas.

Incorporated towns, townships, and cities have the "home rule" ability to form a police force, but for areas that are either rural or do not have a town/city charter then you can't organize a police force. In those instances the Sherrif does the work. A county with several cities and many towns may also have a sheriff's office.

When an area has police and sheriff the duties are usually separated, police typically do low-level local crime and do stuff like detain suspects before their trial/hearing while the sheriff's office will usually operate the jails and handle the more "security" type situations (eg. courts, personal escorts, crowd control at major emergencies, etc)

State and federal agencies usually coordinate efforts and "territory" with local police, as do sheriffs offices. For the most part they all have different assignments / specialties, but when there is overlap (eg. to break a drug gang) then one officer in one agency is given command and all the various agencies coordinate through that one officer as a single "special" or "combined" team. For the most part they manage to work without getting too much in each other's ways or doing each other's jobs.

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real415@reddit

Not every state has this structure, but in many of them, the elected county sheriff is the default law enforcement officer for that county. He or she has deputy sheriffs who are similar in training to police officers.

Incorporated cities have police departments, but the sheriff handles unincorporated smaller places outside the city limits.

Often the sheriff is responsible for securing the county courts and keeping the county jail.

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ianfromdixon@reddit

Sheriff’s deputies patrol the unincorporated areas of counties, as well as small towns, villages, etc., that contract with the County Sheriff rather than finance their own police force. Also, if a town police force Hamas been found to be corrupt, the sheriff will take over for a while.

Police departments are run by a police chief or commissioner who serves at the pleasure of the city council. (In a handful of cities, the mayor.)

The sheriff is directly elected by the voters of the county and is free to do whatever s/he wants within the budget granted them by the County board of supervisors. Nobody can fire the sheriff except by a recall vote.

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CockroachVarious2761@reddit

This varies by state also - in PA sheriffs are a bit different in that they don't patrol anything .. I'm not sure exactly what "arrest powers" they have. They are mostly used to work in the county courthouses as bailiffs/guards and to transport prisoners to/from the county jails.

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Engelgrafik@reddit

A sheriff is responsible for the entire county, but tends to yield to cities who have their own municipal police departments.

Not all towns have police though, and that's where the sheriff comes in.

But for the most part, sheriffs are involved day-to-day in handling county-related stuff which means jails, security at court houses, serving warrants, etc.

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bramblefish@reddit

American legal system is layered, and so is the policing efforts.

Sheriffs are elected by the people, and do not answer to local or state politicians. They take an oath to follow the US constitution first, local laws second, they are county based. They have the authority to swear in temporary or permanent deputies. Their authority ends at county limits, and can operate in cities that have police, but generally leave that to police. If a smaller town does not have a police department, then the Sheriffs office will be primary law enforcement.

Police Departments are operated by the cities, and the Police Chief is a political appointee, and answers to the mayor/city council. Their authority ends at city limits.

State Police of course are politically appointed by the State, ultimate authority is the Governor. They can operate in counties and cities, but usually only at request of whomever the jurisdiction is primary. Often The state police operate a State Bureau of Enforcement (state level FBI if you will). they also have Crime labs that can assist locals, or act for locals who dont have their own labs. They do patrol State property, highways etc. Federal roads (which are really state roads following Fed guidelines) are patrolled by State Patrol. They are primary for state boundary issues, say drugs coming into a state.

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tcspears@reddit

As someone else mentioned, Sheriffs are elected officials at the county level, and are typically responsible for court houses, jails, and prisoner transfers. They can sometimes assist state or local police with searches or other activities, but are generally not involved in policing. In some areas, Sheriffs are also used for executing warrants across town lines, within their county.

In terms of law enforcement structure: At a town/city level, there are local police. At the state level there are state police. At the federal level, it’s the FBI.

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Bluemonogi@reddit

They are different things. In my city there is a building for the police department. They are for the city.

There is a building for the sheriffs department and they are for the whole county. My city is only about 3,000 people but is the county seat so their office is also here.

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Gilgalads-Gambit98@reddit

Sheriffs are over the county, their jurisdiction ends at city limits or at the boundaries of thr county they are appointed over. They also have slightly different procedures and usually end handling different kinds of crime.

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mckenzie_keith@reddit

In the US, "city" has a specific legal meaning. Cities have their own police departments. But many homes are not inside any city. In these areas, the primary law enforcement responsibility is with the sheriff. So this is the main difference. Every county has a sheriff's department. But inside city limits, it is usually the police who enforce the law.

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shadowmib@reddit

Theres levels or jurisdiction.

Ignoring national law enforcement like US Marshals etc you have

State police County sheriff City police

In some places like texas theres also counties split into precincts that have constables.

Everyone has their own, sometimes overlapping areas they patrol.

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-RedRocket-@reddit

Here, the Sheriff is an officer of the county, the administrative district that the city is in. The city also has a chief of police, but it is the county that operates the courthouse (for state law - the Federal courthouse is a different building) and the jail. The Sheriff's department also helps other communities in the county that are not a part of the city, and provides highway patrol and supplemental law enforcement support as needed.

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BoukenGreen@reddit

Usually that’s the county level designation. Police is city, sheriff’s office is county, and trooper is state level.

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wheelsonhell@reddit

Where I'm located, the sheriff works in the county not the city. The sheriff does the police duties outside of city limits. The cops can not come outside city limits. If you live in the county, you call the sheriff's department. If you live inside the city, you call the cops. Very small towns that are not big enough to have a police department are served by the sheriff's department.

The sheriff may have office's in the city limits and operate the jails and such but they patrol the county.

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tnrivergirl@reddit

In our area, there is a police department for within the city limits. The sheriff’s department is the law enforcement agency for the unincorporated areas of the county.

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Dave_A480@reddit

Sheriffs provide law enforcement services to unincorporated areas (not part of a city, town or similar).

Also in many cases if your local government is too small to afford its own actual police department it can contract with the sheriff for police services.

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Effective-Couple-291@reddit

Sheriff’s ride horses and have six shooters also.

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seattlecyclone@reddit

With the usual caveat that different US states often do things a bit differently from each other, the sheriff and (deputy sheriffs) are typically law enforcement officers who work for a county government. The lead sheriff is often an elected position, while the deputy sheriffs are hired like other police officers. Meanwhile a city government will often have its own law enforcement department whose officers are known as "police."

You'll usually see the sheriffs department being the main law enforcement in more rural areas where there's no municipal government large enough to bother with maintaining its own police department. When there is a city police department the sheriff will take a more limited (if any) role within that city. For example here in Seattle the sheriff's department is responsible for law enforcement on public transit and a few other things within the city, but most law enforcement is done by the Seattle Police Department.

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petrock85@reddit

The sheriff is specifically a county-level law enforcement official. Unlike other law enforcement officials, the sheriff is usually directly elected. The exact roles vary by state.

In southern states, the sheriff's department commonly does general law enforcement. Large cities have their own police departments, but small towns often do not. In those towns, as well rural areas outside any city or town, the sheriff is the primary local law enforcement. This can make the sheriff election very important.

Up north, the sheriff's department often has more limited responsibilities, such as running the county jail and providing security at courthouses. Here in Connecticut we don't even have sheriffs at all. With limited or no sheriffs, the state police is the primary local law enforcement in small towns that don't have their own police forces.

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stangAce20@reddit

Sheriff is also police, but their jurisdiction usually covers the entire county and/or unincorporated parts of a city/county

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DankBlunderwood@reddit

Sheriff Dept, very broadly speaking, polices the rural parts of a county, although they also assist city police departments on an ad hoc basis.

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BlueRFR3100@reddit

IN my county the Sheriff's office runs the county jail and patrols the towns that are too small to have their own police department.

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logaboga@reddit

A sheriff is a law enforcement officer at the county level. a small town may not have the importance or resources to have their own police department, so they will have some sheriffs from the county posted there instead. Big cities don’t have sheriffs because they usually can fund and maintain their own local police department

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WyndWoman@reddit

I live in a medium size metro area. I live outside the city limits, ergo in the county.

City police will not respond to my neighborhood, its the Sheriff's jurisdiction.

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-Boston-Terrier-@reddit

This sub always says the difference is sheriffs are county and police departments are city and generally that’s accurate but the real difference is that police departments enforce criminal law, traffic law, and public safety while sheriffs enforce all of that plus civil law.

Even that is not 100% true throughout all 50 states but, for the most part, sheriffs do everything police departments do and civil stuff.

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Bluecat72@reddit

It depends. In my area, the county contains two cities that are independent of the county (this isn’t common in the US) and each area has its own police department.

There is also a sheriff’s office; they used to handle all of the law enforcement before the 1970s, but now their responsibilities are “courtroom security, all jail and prisoner operations, court orders and civil process operations, and fugitive tracking and apprehension.” There’s only one court for the county including the independent cities, so there’s only one sheriff’s office.

Where I grew up in a neighboring state the situation is similar, except there are no independent cities. The sheriff’s office is the enforcement arm of the circuit court, and handles judicial enforcement and physical security for the court. They are not in charge of the jail, though.

In both cases the sheriffs and their deputies are fully capable law enforcement officers and will assist the police department when needed.

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Initial_Fill_2655@reddit

Assuming you are in Egypt, Indiana republican governor Braun visited Egypt when in office.

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Reasonable-Company71@reddit

Depends on the area. In Hawaii each county (island) is its own jurisdiction has its own police force. The State Sheriffs are at the State level but they really only provide security/law enforcement at State buildings, State courthouses and airports and serve warrants and evictions.

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Ponchyan@reddit

America has many and multiple layers of citizen compliance enforcement … I mean police forces … which are essential for keeping America’s for-profit prisons full.

Another reason is the nation’s vast, vast geography.

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Wild-Lychee-3312@reddit

Fun fact: the word "sheriff" comes from shir-reve (or, in more modern spelling, "shire reeve"). A "shire" is more or less the same thing as a "county," which is why sheriffs work on the county level in the USA. A reeve was "an Anglo-Saxon official of high rank, having local jurisdiction under a king, usually charged with administration of the affairs of a town or district."

Which means that Keanu Reeves' surname means he's a sheriff.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/sheriff

https://www.etymonline.com/word/reeve

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Feisty-Web-2787@reddit

Some towns do not have enough people/tax revenue to fund a police department so they have to rely on the sheriff.

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IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit

I'll answer just one of your questions. Sheriffs are definitely not just for smaller jurisdictions. Los Angeles County has a sheriff. The cities in L.A. County (Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and more) have police departments.

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K0T_666@reddit

Some cities/ towns are now served by state police or county police because of $ issues.

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Bookworm10-42@reddit

In Virginia, the Office of Sheriff is a Constitutionally elected position, along with the Commonwealth’s Attorney (prosecutor,) Commissioner of Revenue, Treasurer, and Circuit Court Clerk. All cities and counties have their own of each position and are elected every four years.

Because of this “Sheriff’s Office” is the correct term and is in on all correspondence, official documents, uniforms, signs, vehicle markings, etc.

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SSweetSauce@reddit

In my county in NC the city’s have a police department the rural areas only have sheriff. Lithe little town I live in has a fire department but no police department, the sheriff handles our town. This was also the case in the town where I grew up in Indiana although that town was a bit bigger, I’m pretty sure they got a police department not long after I left. Every county is different but I pretty sure all of them elect a sheriff, police departments are for large towns and cities.

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Both-Structure-6786@reddit

Sheriffs typically are at the county level and as small towns usually don’t have their own police force the sheriff department fills that gap.

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BakedBrie1993@reddit

I encourage you to go on a deep dive to learn how corrupt and bananas sheriff departments can be.

Police officers already have unfathomably low standards for training and operating. Sheriffs departments are even worse and it can be very hard to "dethrone" a sheriff depending on impeachment rules.

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msabeln@reddit

Highway patrol works for the state governor.

Sheriff works for the county judiciary.

Police work for the county executive or city mayor.

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Betorah@reddit

There are no sheriffs in Connecticut. The office of sheriff was the last vestige of county government in our state. The office was eliminated in 2000 and was replaced with Judicial Marshalls for courthouse duties and State Marshall’s for serving papers.

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OldRaj@reddit

The sheriff is near!

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gadget850@reddit

It varies a lot.

Generally, Virginia counties have a sheriff's department, while independent cities have a police department for general law enforcement and a sheriff's department that guards the courthouse and provides civil process services. Police chiefs are appointed, and sheriffs are elected.

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SouthernStyleGamer@reddit

Sheriffs have higher authority than city police.

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Initial_Fill_2655@reddit

Unincorporated area in state of Indiana USA - there are state, city, town and county officers as well as Department of natural resources (DNR) officers- FBI agents also. There is a county Sheriff that is elected - male and female officers. There are officers assigned to schools or school systems.

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DelcoUnited@reddit

In the US we have Federal\State\County\Municipality

Levels of government and policing. Not every municipality aka city has a police department if it’s too small. But generally all counties have one. And they are called sheriffs offices.

Federal level we have FBI and Border Patrol, Federal Marshalls etc, State level would include State Troopers and highway patrol, state level detectives and drug enforcement. Sheriffs are usually elected officials themselves. They are responsible for more civil related issues not criminal. So forfeitures and seizures issued by judges. Foreclosures and evictions. Serving warrants issued by judges. Sometimes they have to provide basic law enforcement if there aren’t municipality level police. Municipalities police are your local cops. They do day to day law enforcement. Traffic stops and enforcement. Neighborhood patrols. 911 responders etc. Limited jurisdictions. In populous NorthEastern states suburbs often inefficient with so many and so much overlap between departments that are proving the same service as another township next door.

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Round-Lab73@reddit

A sheriff's department is usually in charge of law enforcement within a county (an administrative unit between the state and local level), including running the county jail. You're probably more likely to see them at work in a small, unincorporated town that may not have a local police force of it's own, but depending on where you are they might patrol the whole county including urban areas

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captain_ohagen@reddit

I live in Vista, CA, a city of >100K in suburban San Diego County. Interestingly, we dont have a police force but the cities bordering us have dedicated PDs. The San Diego County Sheriff has jurisdiction here.

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kwerdop@reddit

The word sheriff comes from shire reeve. Shire is the equivalent of a county, reeves were the kings representative in a shire. That eventually became sheriff. They are the law county wide, and police officers work for a city

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sampson4141@reddit

Another big difference is that Sheriff's are often an elected official. So there may be a county that has an elected sheriffs and then all of these cities within the county.

Often a city wants its own police force that the report to the mayor and city council. A county sheriff that is elected isn't beholden to a city mayor or city council. Those cities almost always appoint a police chief and can fire them whenever they want.

The sheriff in areas without a city or town with its own police force, is essentially the local law enforcement for those areas. Then in cities within the county, the sheriff will handle security for the courts and run the jails within that city, as those are typically county level functions. They serve warrants for judges, do evictions based on court orders, transport inmates to court from jail or to prison.

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GoddessOfOddness@reddit

We have things on federal level, state level, county level, and township or city level.

Federal cops are lots of different groups. Marshalls/DEA agents/etc.

State cops are State Troopers in most states.

County cops are sheriffs and their deputies.

And then “police department” is for city or township cops.

There is sort of a friendly rivalry between these levels.

With the sheriff, they tend to run the jails, serve in the courthouses, and cover areas that aren’t covered by city/township cops.

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Calaveras-Metal@reddit

sheriff and police dept are different things. There are also state police, and of course the FBI.

We have a lot of cops for a 'land of the free'.

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

Sheriff's generally cover an entire county, City Police departments only patrol inside the city limits.

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tvan184@reddit

Generally sheriffs and police are the same function, depending on jurisdiction.

However….

It is very state dependent. The most traditional is probably police being the title for law enforcement in the state or city and sheriff is county level. A limited number of states don’t have traditional sheriff departments involving patrol. Some only run the county jail. I believe there are a few states which have a county sheriff and a separate county police department.

So while law enforcement is generally speaking the same job whether an officer (or deputy) patrols the city, county or state, they often use different titles. A state police officer might be called a trooper. You could throw state or federal agents into the same discussion.

It’s kind of like calling your primary care physician your doctor. A medical doctor and physician are the same thing.

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Scooooter@reddit

And just to really mess around a little more, the police in my little town are called the “town marshal.” Seems to be an historic artifact.

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BigDamBeavers@reddit

It's not a science, mostly because things don't remain the same forever but institutional signs are difficult to change. However, In America "Police" generally refers to a metropolitan police force where law enforcement has specialization, a narrow jurisdiction and administrative support like medical examiners or forensic analysts. Sherrif's departments are usually generalist law enforcement with a wide jurisdiction that depends on regional metropolitan forces for their support.

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Forward_Tank8310@reddit

LA County is the largest in the US, with a very well funded county sheriff’s department, with air and marine units plus the county jail. Los Angeles & many other cities in the county also have their own local police departments. If not, they rely on the sheriff.

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KW5625@reddit

Local Police - City wide daily policing, traffic control, write traffic tickets, may have holding cells at city hall

County Sheriff - County wide policing, serve summons and evictions, transport prisoners, maintain county jail, animal control, covers rural areas between cities, support and supplement city police within cities

State Police - State wide policing, special enforcement operations, special labratories, advanced SWAT teams, advanced search and rescue squads, air power (search helicoters, traffic control aircraft), interstate and commercial vehicle patrols

DNR / Park Police - State wide policing, responsible for wildlife conservation law enforcement, also have full police powers... don't mess with them.

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Aggravating-Key-8867@reddit

Where I live,. every county and city has a Sheriff's office. At a minimum they are responsible for courthouse and jail security and serving warrants. Every city and a few counties have their own police department in addition to the Sheriff's office. The police do law enforcement activities like investigating crimes. If there isn't a police department then the sheriff's office does criminal investigations.

Also, the local sheriff is elected, but police chiefs are hired by the city and are not elected.

This is probably something that is a little different in every single state, so you'll probably get 50 or so different answers.

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shammy_dammy@reddit

Sheriffs are county law enforcement. So Cook County IL has a sheriff. And numerous city police stations, since it's Chicago.

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Combat__Crayon@reddit

And cook county is carved up into so many towns that they all have their own police departments. My friend lived in an unincorporated area, so if he called police for something non emergency the county sheriff would respond if it was an emergency it would be sheriff or police depending on who was closer.

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djjolicoeur@reddit

We have both in my town. The sheriffs primarily serve papers, do evictions, they generally handle the Moore administrative law enforcement.

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visitor987@reddit

A sheriff is usually an elected county law enforcement official his employees are called Sheriff Deputies . Police are employed by cities towns or villages and report to a Police Chief/Commissioner.

State law enforcement are called police, troopers, rangers or agents it varies by state.

Federal law enforcement are called Marshalls, agents or special agents,

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blipsman@reddit

Sheriffs are county level law enforcement, who often patrol rural/unincorporated areas without municipal police. In urban/.suburban areas, sheriffs mostly run the jails and court security.

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Illustrious-Jump-398@reddit

Depends, where I live the Sheriffs office handles court functions, the county prison, the county jail and patrols parks, highways and the airport.

In rural counties in Wisconsin thre are a few small police departments, but the Sheriffs office is the biggest law enforcement agency.

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miketugboat@reddit

All big cities have police, small town rely on highway patrol or local sheriffs. Some big cities are in counties that have a sheriffs department as well as local police (LA and Miami are notable, sheriffs are definitely big in California and the west)

Cities like NYC have a sheriffs department but in a lot of the more populated areas of the US the sheriff's mostly deal with the jails and the courts, not actually patrolling for the most part.

It's odd. In my city there are 32 different law enforcement agencies, and no sheriffs or deputies.

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stitchdude@reddit

A sheriff is a county law enforcement officer, sometimes providing primary law enforcement for rural areas, in some states such as Florida they seem to have for more traffic enforcement also. They also operate county jails. I believe the name and general function is a leftover from our England ties.

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RVCSNoodle@reddit

To answer a part of your question that I'm not seeing people talk about.

The reason sheriffs are associated with smaller towns is because small towns wont have their own police, and so law enforcement falls on the next notch, county sheriffs.

Big cities have sheriffs too, they're just not quite so prominent

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tranquilrage73@reddit

City=Police County=Sheriff State=Highway Patrol

They do, of course, overlap.

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JayRandom212@reddit

They are different jurisdictions.

In the USA your house might be in the jurisdiction of:

- City police

- County Sheriff

- State Troopers

- FBI (Federal)

- Any number of Marshals controlled by City, State, or Federal courts

- Specialty outfits like ICE, ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), Transit Police, DEA (drugs), etc.

- Others that I know I missed. Those who know, please reply in the comments.

All of these people are armed. If they can convince a prosecutor that they THOUGHT YOU MIGHT have had a gun, they can shoot you dead you with no repercussions whatsoever.

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seidinove@reddit

In addition to what others have said about Sheriffs = county and police = city and state, sheriffs also run the county jail, where people charged with a crime are held before trial if they haven't been released on their own recognizance or posted bail. Some county jails also house convicted people serving very short sentences. City police might have lockups, but they are basically holding cells until the arrested person can be transported to the county jail to be booked.

I lived in Milwaukee for a couple of years, and the county sheriff there was also responsible for patrolling the interstates that ran through the city.

Some densely populated counties have a county-wide police force in addition to a Sheriff's department. The closest example where I live now is Fairfax County in Virginia.

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GrowlingAtTheWorld@reddit

I can only speak to my area of the US. A sheriff is a position that is voted on by the people of the county that the sheriff oversees. He is responsible for policing the unincorporated areas of the county, running the county jail etc. The police is headed by a police chief and is responsible for things that go on within a municipality ie city. Police chiefs are appointed by a city council.

I live outside the city so if I had need of law enforcement I would call the sheriff’s office to get help.

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Pinkfish_411@reddit

The sheriff is usually an elected official with jurisdiction at the county level, whereas police are usually public employees with jurisdiction at the city or state level. Sheriff's usually have standard policing powers that overlap with politic departments within the country, while also often doing things live enforcing court orders from the county judges, managing the county jails, and even things like auctioning off foreclosed real estate.

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Queasy-Ad-6126@reddit

In Pennsylvania, sheriffs are county level, not municipal, as other have said. But they have very specific law enforcement tasks. They guard courthouses, transport prisoners to and from court, and serve arrest warrants. They don't have law enforcement tasks that police have, like writing tickets for traffic offenses or responding to 911 calls.

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Federal-Membership-1@reddit

Adding to the above, sheriff's typically have very specialized duties like seizing property to satisfy judgements, selling property at auction, staffing courts, executing court orders, running county jails, court house security.

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Per_sephone_@reddit

Where I live, the Sheriff is in charge of unincorporated county areas (areas outside the city limits), and the freeways.

The police only have jurisdiction within the city limits.

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iPoseidon_xii@reddit

It’s the country law enforcement. Usually the sheriff is the one in charge and voted in, while everyone else are deputies. They have to have operations somewhere and that’s usually at the county seat, a town or city within the county. Or someone in the rural parts of the county.

In the U.S. it goes federal government —> state —> county —> city/town —> district —> HOA —> single family homes —> matriarchs/patriarchs —> ego

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Own-Vegetable-2710@reddit

My small town had both. Sheriff's were for the county and police city

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nekomeowohio@reddit

Sheriff useally have a bigger area then local police department and often time Sheriff runs the local jails in an area. Varies a bit bt state

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PikesPique@reddit

Police cover cities and towns. Sheriff’s are elected and cover the entire county, especially areas outside city limits.

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Lyfe-of-Luv@reddit

Every place has a sheriff. Major

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Jazzvinyl59@reddit

In big cities sometimes the Sheriff’s Office is more of an administrative enforcement agency, they enforce evictions, building permits, serving warrants, etc. That’s the case in NYC

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SeaGurl@reddit

Like others have said, sheriff is county and outside of city limits. So that covers rural areas and any urban/suburban areas outside city limits.

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woodsred@reddit

This can vary by state and jurisdiction, but generally the Sheriff's Office is county-level and the police department is municipal-level. In smaller towns where there may not be a dedicated police department, the county sheriff is typically either obligated or contracted to patrol.

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