eli5 What’s the difference between a police officer and a sheriff?

Question

eli5 What’s the difference between a police officer and a sheriff?

In: 146

Answer 1

Different in different places.

In Canada you can think of sheriffs like “court security plus.” They handle in-court security. They handle prisoner transfer to and from cells/courthouse. They occasionally serve warrants or other court documents if directed to do so. And they have powers of arrest if necessary. But they aren’t on the beat solving crimes or providing law enforcement presence anywhere else. They’re basically an arm of the court, rather than a type of police officer.