The term local police refer to the vast majority of all law enforcement employees. The local enforcement agencies are: metropolitan law enforcement, county law enforcement, and rural and
small town enforcement.
· Metropolitan Law Enforcement: is in charge of arresting law violators, issuing special licenses and permits, enforcing traffic laws providing, and crowd and traffic control at public events, and. Metropolitan police also performs routine patrol, and investigating crimes. About 65 percent of local officers perform patrol duties and 16 percent of these officers, perform criminal investigations.
· County Law Enforcement: Many counties in United States have a sheriff’s department, managed by an elected sheriff. The duties of the sheriff vary according to the size of the designated county. The sheriff’s office may perform the duties of coroners, tax assessors and collectors, court attendants, keepers of county jails, and executors of criminal and civil processes, as well as law enforcement.
· Rural and Small Town Law Enforcement: Law enforcement officers in charge of small and rural towns face the distance problem. Rural and small town law enforcement agencies participate in mutual assistance programs with neighboring agencies and help one another when needed.
The major differences between the local and state law enforcement is that local officers play an immediate role within the community by arresting law offenders, investigating crimes; they do traffic laws, and have duties at court and jails, and are responsible to respond to citizen calls for service. The state law enforcement mainly focuses on highway patrol by preventing criminals and contraband of any type (drugs, for example) that could cross from state to state.
Federal Law Enforcement Agencies are grouped at the same time, according to the federal department or bureau to which they report. The mentioned groups are the following:
· Department of Justice: Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Drug Enforcement Administration.
· Department of Justice: Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Drug Enforcement Administration.
Every department plays an important role in the Criminal Justice System, but probably the three most important agencies are: the State Police and Highway patrol, FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), and the IRA (Internal Revenue Services).
The State and Highway Patrol was created for four main reasons:
1. To assist local police departments who did not have had enough training and resources to solve crimes and perform their law enforcement tasks.
2. To investigate and catch criminals that would cross jurisdictional boundaries.
3. To provide law enforcement in areas were local police was not available.
4. To control labor movements.
Today in the United States, there are twenty-six highway patrols and have limited authority either by their jurisdiction or the type of offenses the patrols can control.
The FBI is charge of investigating violation of the federal law and has jurisdiction over nearly two hundred federal crimes such as kidnapping, bank robbery, murders, among others. In addition to this, FBI agents investigate terrorism and drug trafficking, and they offer training to local law enforcements
The IRA is responsible for the government finances. It pays the federal government’s bills, collects tax, and prints currency. The bureau has three divisions, and only one is involved with the investigation of crime. The IRS is also involved in the investigation of criminal activities such as selling drugs for the simple reason that drug dealers will never report any illegal activities.
These three agencies are equally important and work together to fight crime in the country.
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