No, no, no, you're supposed to claim that was the intent!
No, no, no, you're supposed to claim that was the intent!
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“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
Auto correct strikes again!Originally Posted by AMC
I have to confess I haven't seen those San Antonio guys on patrol in The City lately. Must not be paying attention
Seriously, though. What HCM said is correct. San Francisco is the only SO in California without a primary patrol function. They are responsible for LE services at the county hospitals and clinics, though.
NJ is similar. I can't say with an absolute, but the Sheriffs will primarily be involved with the county specific "assets", like jails, any parks under county authority, county tax issues, ect. They go through the same police academy as PD guys and can lateral move like everyone else, although many of the counties will also employ non-sworn, unarmed correctional officers for the jail. I think that statewide all of the tactical teams are under the Sheriff's office as well, with the exception of the NJSP. Oddly enough, police services for small municipalities that don't have a PD or have a part time PD are provided by NJSP, not the SO.Come on, he meant San Anselmo ...
The differences in CA have been covered by others. It is really odd when I talk to east coast friends to hear the differences, I think PA was the most obviously different. There, the sheriff's office is much more like the one in San Fran - jail & courts only, no patrol.
Vermont is the most unique I've heard of. I have a friend who's retired as a Sheriff's Lt up there. The way she described it sounded more like they're run like a private contracting company. She only got about $20k/year for her primary job. By being on the State drug TF and SADD, she received more pay. It seemed like a very odd arrangement to me. They also have their municipal Constables, which are appointed and technically do not require any sort of actual police training....albeit a diminishing practice given the realities of 21st century policing. A guy I know from college has worked at her SO for the last decade, but has never been through a full police academy (because he can't pass the PFT to get in). Apparently it was/is only required for full-time employment.
Last edited by TGS; 08-05-2016 at 07:40 AM.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Kind of sort of, for Vermont.
It really depends on the department. It sounds like your friend was a part time that did side jobs to make up the extra cash. There are no reserves in Vermont, just part time officers/deputies who are paid. They go through a 2 week initial academy, a whole bunch of other training in bits and pieces, FTO and then once certified have the same LE powers as a full time officer. There is only one academy in Vermont and all officers go through it, either the full academy or a part time academy (part times, constables and out of state laterals). Full time deputies at all the departments I know of receive normal salary. In terms of responsibilities, it really depends on the department. All prisons are run by the state, not the SO's, although some SO's do have small county jails that serve as temporary holding areas. Sheriffs do the civil processing, prisoner transports, court (in most but not all counties), and in more rural areas they do patrol and have some LE contracts with smaller towns. I was a part time deputy while in college and the department I worked for did court, prisoner transports, civil stuff, some limited investigations (mostly the county sex crimes investigations) and had patrol contracts for a few towns. In a lot of unincorporated areas, the state police do the patrol stuff though. We basically shared it with them, since there were so few of us from both agencies in the county. It really depends on the department what they do. Chittenden County SO (Burlington area, largely urban) to my knowledge just does civil processing and prisoner transports, as where the agency I worked for (in a much more rural area) bordered on full service.
Constables are now required to meet the same requirements as part time officers (although I'm not sure if they have to do FTO with a local agency). They have to do the part time academy and other mandatory trainings.
Last edited by VT1032; 08-05-2016 at 08:30 AM.
The SO here patrols the entire county, both unincorporated and two cities that have PDs. The most interesting SO I've seen is Broward County, which operates the Department of Fire Rescue as well as everything else you'd expect.
http://www.sheriff.org/about_bso/dfres/
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
And then you have the merged City & County of _________. Denver and Las Vegas being prime examples. Denver has a Chief of Police and then they have the Sheriff's doing detention and civil process but the PD does patrol. Vegas has a Sheriff and not a Chief of Police. Vegas Metro Police does the patrol for Las Vegas and unincorporated areas. Their detention center is where Metro brings their bookings although the City of Las Vegas has a jail, as do the other cities within Clark County. The other cities also have their own Police Departments. The Sheriff does have a small cadre of actual deputies that do some civil process but each "township" has a Constable that also does civil process.
As you may have guessed, there are myriad systems set up for L.E. nationwide depending on how the legislature has set things up. Oh, and that's not even broaching the subject of Highway Patrol vs. State Police!
-All views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect those of the author's employer-
In Arizona the Department of Public Safety has different badges for Highway Patrol Troopers and other divisions within DPS. There are different badges for Arizona Highway Patrol, Arizona Capitol Police, and Arizona Department of Public Safety. Another interesting tidbit for California is that the Government Code specifies that within his jurisdiction, the Chief of Police has all the powers of the county sheriff. See CA GC 41601-41612.
The first indication a bad guy should have that I'm dangerous is when his
disembodied soul is looking down at his own corpse wondering what happened.
it may seem like there is a lot of law enforcement in the U.S., but consider the following numbers:
There are roughly 39,000 municipal governments in the U.S. There are roughly 3000 counties.
There are just over 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. Of those, 17, 900+ are state, local, or tribal agencies.
The U.S. population is approximately 320 million. If you include corrections officers, there are a little over 1 million law enforcement officers in the U.S.
I had an ER nurse in a class. I noticed she kept taking all head shots. Her response when asked why, "'I've seen too many people who have been shot in the chest putting up a fight in the ER." Point taken.
Thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions so far.
As one can see, the definitions of "Sheriff" could vary in different states, or even within a specific state.
If there's a next time, perhaps be more specific as to what state, county, or agency is being discussed or being compared.
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