law-enforcement
PD Vs SO Vs ST. What is this all about?
<p>I have read alot about this and have gotten so many mixed answers, I have a headache.</p>
<p>Does the Sheriffs Office command over City Police, and do the State Troopers command over Both of them? I know the Police Rules over the city, The SO rules over county, and the ST rules over all of the state, but can a Trooper tell a sheriff, or police what to do, or a sheriff take over a Crime Scene from police?</p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/united-states" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" rel="tag">united-states</a></p>
<p>First of all, I would not say that any police organization &quot;rules over&quot;: any area, unless serious corruption is being implied. The usual term is &quot;has jurisdiction&quot; meaning that they may enforce the law, make arrests, and generally act as police.</p>
<p>The rules are going to vary by state, and not all states even have all of these types of law enforcement organizations. But here are some ways in which they often work:</p>
<p>A Sheriff is generally a county official, and may have jurisdiction anywhere in the county. If so, so will all the officers under the sheriff, who my all or mostly be Deputy Sheriffs. (This term is very old, going back to &quot;shire reeve&quot;, the chief administrative officer or bailiff for a shire, or county, in England, prior to the year 1000, and on through to the modern era.) In many states the Sheriff has authority <strong>except</strong> in incorporated cities within the county. The Sheriff often supplies court officials or bailiffs, and also runs the county jail.  This post tends to be more important in the western part of the US.</p>
<p>City police generally have jurisdiction within the boundaries of a city. They may be a tiny or huge organization, depending on the size of the city.  State level law enforcement may or may not be able to supersede them, county level often cannot.</p>
<p>The state police, often known as &quot;state troopers&quot; have jurisdiction through the state. In some states they mostly do highway patrol and traffic enforcement on state highways. In some states they provide primary law enforcement for all areas not part of a municipality with its own police. They may provide backup and resources for small police departments not equipped to handle major crimes, particularly villages and towns that do not have the status of cities. Or that may be handled by the Sheriff's office.</p>
<p>Many states have a Division of Investigation, sort of a state-level version of the FBI. This is sometimes administratively part of the State Police, sometimes not, but even when it is it is in practice a separate organization. It can and does investigate serious crimes anywhere in the sate, and often handles matters where the conduct of the local police is or might be in question. It may be called by different names in different states. This organization can and does take over cases from local police and sheriff's offices. They may also run central crime labs with facilities more advances than local police departments have, to whcih evidence may be sent for testing from local departments or sheriff's offices.</p>
