POLICE FORCE OF THE UNITED STATES

Law enforcement in the USA takes place at many governmental levels: country, municipal, state and federal ones.

Police departments of countries are often called “sheriffs” departments. Sheriff is an officer responsible for order in his country. The position of sheriff holds a unique place in the American policing system. Sheriff is not appointed, he is elected in the USA to make sure that law is obeyed. A deputy sheriff helps sheriff in his work.

Each city has its own police force that it hires, trains, controls, and organizes. Neither the President nor the governor of a state has direct power over it. Municipal police departments differ from their country law enforcement colleagues in several ways: they have a greater staff and larger financial and equipment resources. In major cities like New York, the police are under the control of a police commissioner, who is appointed by the major for a specific period of time.

State police agencies have rather modern origins. Each state has its own state police and its own criminal laws. This is true with, for example, marriage and divorce laws, driving laws and licenses, drinking laws and voting procedures, But when a local sheriff or municipal police chief think a particular state law to be unjust or unnecessary, this law is not enforced, as a rule, on the territory under their control and highway patrols. In more serious affairs each state is forced to rely its municipal forces.

Federal bodies such as the Secret Service Division and the Narcotics Bureau operate nationwide. Over fifty law enforcement and regulatory agencies are within the jurisdiction of the federal government. Unlike local policing powers, federal agencies have their specific functions and much more .narrow powers, these agencies are designed to maintain the balance between an Individual. citizen's ability to act freely. In society and the society's need for social order.

The US Department of Justice is sometimes called the legal arm of government. It consists of the Federal Bureau of investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The objectives of the American police are to protect life and property and safeguard the individual liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, to prevent crime and disorder and to preserve peace. Policemen are given certain limited powers to*pursue these objectives. In the USA the police are armed which is not usually the case in Britain.

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POLICE FORCE OF GREAT BRITAIN	\|	The Work of Militia

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