What is the difference between a sheriff and police department? Do they govern different things and have completely separate powers? Does one have more jurisdiction over another and what happens when it comes to committing a criminal offence?
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Each state is a little different, but usually it works like this.
County: A County may include multiple municipalities, (city, town, village, township, etc) and also “unincorporated areas”. This means areas that are not part of any Municipality.
The Sheriff typically has jurisdiction over an entire County.
Police department has jurisdiction over just their municipality.
When a Police Department exists inside a county, there is typically a relationship between the Police Department and the County Sheriff’s department and agreements of who is responsible for what.
For unincorporated areas in the County, they usually don’t have a local police department and are instead patrolled and policed by the County Sheriff.
In some rural/low-population counties, there is only a Sheriff and no local police departments.
Additionally, most Court and Jail systems are run at the County level as it’s usually more efficient than each individual Municipality having their own jail/court. The sheriff typically runs the County Jail system, and also enforces/delivers Court Orders for their County Court system.
It does vary a bit by state, but that is the general idea.
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