what is the difference between police, sheriff and State Troopers?

Question

I’m fairly new to living in the US and I see all three on the roads here. In the U.K. we only had police.

In: 24

Answer 1

You’re getting a lot of different, conflicting, and somewhat-erroneous answers, here. 🙂

I’ll try to keep it simple. All of those people are “law-enforcement officers,” but who they work for and what their job duties are can vary greatly, because each of the 50 United States has different laws.

In general, “police” are probably similar to the police in the UK. One big difference is that there are usually local police (either for a big city like New York, or a small town of 200 people). Those local police often lack police authority outside of their jurisdiction. For example, if a New York City police officer goes on vacation to California, he can’t issue you a ticket for littering in California, even if he watches you littering, because he is not a law-enforcement officer in California. (He can, however, still call the local police and report it, just like any other citizen.)

“State Troopers” or “State Police” (the proper term can vary, from state to state) are also police officers, but they have the same police authority throughout a single entire state. They generally leave the smaller crimes to the local police, but state police get involved in bigger, statewide investigations like serial killers or people dealing drugs in multiple towns. State police also often enforce laws on major highways, because those roads run quickly from one town to another.

“Sheriffs” are often elected officials, not hired/appointed officials. They are law-enforcement officers who usually operate at a county level, within a particular state. In some cases, they act just like the police (particularly in some rural areas, where small towns may not have their own police forces). However, they also often serve other jobs for the county courts, doing things like serving arrest warrants, hunting down criminal fugitives, and transporting prisoners to and from the county jails and the courts. The actual duties of a county sheriff can vary greatly, from one area to another.