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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You have gotten a lot of good answers. Each state has different, but usually similar laws. In my state, the sheriff, in addition to county wide law enforcement, is also responsible for collecting taxes on property. The check for the taxes is actually written to the sheriff…it seems wrong somehow.
This varies a lot state by state. In Pennsylvania sheriffs are enforcement officers for the county court system. They transport prisoners from jail to court, serve bench warrants if you don’t show up in court, etc. They have no general law enforcement jurisdiction. They don’t write traffic tickets. If you call 911 because you hear a bump in the night you will never get a sherif to show up.
I can’t really add to the excellent responses you got here. But I do suggest watching this documentary on a typical US sheriff’s department:
https://www.cc.com/shows/reno-911
I live in a high populated suburban area of NE us. As others have said sheriff is elected and police are not. As for roles, sheriff’s department is responsible for once an individual is in custody and police for upholding laws “on the street” so sheriff’s department takes people from holding for bail and court appointments etcetera and that is their primary role.
In general, a police force is just that – cops who patrol and protect people from crime.
A sherriff is an officer of the local courts. He/she does things like enforcing court orders, such as evictions, along with his/her deputies.
HOWEVER, the two can overlap. In some smaller towns or rural areas, the sheriff’s office may be the only local police force and enforce all the laws.
Sheriff comes from shire, your British equivalent of our counties. Sheriff is a contraction of the old shire reeve, or the local shire’s magistrate. One duty of a shire reeve was to gather men at arms to keep the peace when necessary. In counties the sheriff now has fewer duties, mostly consisting of that duty to gather men at arms to keep the peace.
Police are hired by the city to keep peace in the city. There are jurisdictional limits. Generally police can only arrest in the city, or a bit outside of it, or they can continue to chase someone who committed a crime in the city into the county. A city being within a county, a sheriff can arrest someone within a city. However, in practice they leave responsibility for that to the police, generally only arresting in chance encounters or upon request for help from the police.
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In some major metropolitan areas, county and city governments are more or less merged, and the sheriff’s department and the police department have different roles. For example, Indianapolis, Indiana: the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department are the “beat cops” and detectives, investigating crimes, while the Marion County Sheriff’s Department runs the county jail, and whose deputies serve arrest warrants.
Imagine your town is like a big school. Think of the sheriff like the headmaster of the school. The sheriff is elected and is in charge of law enforcement in a county, which is a larger area that might include several towns. The sheriff’s deputies patrol areas outside city limits and often manage the county jail. Now, the police department is more like the teachers and staff who look after each classroom or town. They’re part of a city or town government and focus on law enforcement within that specific city or town. The sheriff’s jurisdiction covers the entire county, including areas that don’t have their own police department. The police department’s jurisdiction is limited to the city or town it serves. If someone commits a crime in an area covered by a police department, the local police would handle it. If it’s in an area without a local police force, or if it’s a bigger or more serious crime, the sheriff’s department would step in.
To add to confusion: There are also Park Rangers(they patrol city parks, not sure what else) I don’t know how it is in other states but here in Ohio they do have enough authority to make a traffic stop and then call a city or county officer to take over. Some of the PR’s are on a power trip and think they are actual police.
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