Bergen Community College

Course: CRJ-109 Issues in Policing

Name: Ryan Andrew Sanderson

Essay Question One: Why are there so many different types of law
enforcement agencies in the United States? What problems, if any, do you
think are created by having such a diversity of agencies?
Currently in the United States, there is approximately 18000 different law
enforcement agencies, they range in size from about 39,000 sworn officers in the
NYPD, to the roughly 3000 one-man police and sheriff's departments in the U.S. The
purpose that there are so many different types of law enforcement agencies is
because different departments are sometimes required enforce specific laws that
local police cannot be expected to enforce. There are three major branches of law
enforcement agencies, federal, state and local. Local agencies, such as township
police and county sheriffs are divided according to control and jurisdiction. The local
agencies main priority is to up hold the law while providing patrol and investigate
local crime, with the added exception of the sheriffs who also control the county
jails. At the state level, there jurisdiction resides in that specific state. State police
investigate and respond to emergencies that exceed the jurisdiction and control of
local agencies. At the federal level, jurisdiction does not apply the same as the
local and state agencies. Federal officers assist in criminal investigation and
inspections across the nation. To sum it all up, the reason that there are so

Bergen Community College

Course: CRJ-109 Issues in Policing
Name: Ryan Andrew Sanderson

numerous law enforcement agencies is because different agencies dont have the
same jurisdiction, power, funding and responsibilities.

One of the main issues that can be found when examining the many different
types of law enforcement, is the issue of Jurisdiction. The primary differences
among areas of jurisdiction are arranged at a national level as part of the U.S.
Constitution. Different states do not have jurisdiction over one another. When
initially set up, the United States were supposed to be just that: an unattached
partnership of separate countries. Overtime, it has come to see itself as one nation,
but this is why each state has its own laws and why they can vary so widely
between the states. There are a massive number of examples, but commonly, just
because something is a law in one state does not mean that it will be the same in a
different state. This is also part of the purpose why attorneys from one state are not
automatically authorized to practice in another or able to help people living in a
different state. Further than that, most states also use a comparable model to the
federal system, permitting local municipalities to handle matters that are
exclusively local. For example, most zoning issues, local parking regulations, and a
number of other ordinances affecting only those within a particular county, parish,
or municipality are handled on a local level rather than a state level. Since various

Bergen Community College

Course: CRJ-109 Issues in Policing
Name: Ryan Andrew Sanderson

police agencies are simply administrative bodies permitted to use force to enforce
legal requirements, they are also bound by the jurisdiction of whichever agency
they work for, which is bound by the jurisdiction of the government that created the
agency. So, local police usually have jurisdiction over crimes within that city, sheriffs
have jurisdiction over the county, state troopers have jurisdiction over state roads
and state-wide crimes, and federal policing agencies have jurisdiction over federal
level crimes.