General Forums >> The Lobby >> The difference between Sheriff and Police
The difference between Sheriff and Police
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Posted 2 months ago Hi. I'm C.J., a criminal justice major at Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana.
What I would really like to know is the difference between the duties of a deputy sheriff and a police officer, if any.
Thanks for your time. |
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| Posted 2 months ago In Indiana, the only difference is the Sheriff's Dept. does paper service on top of law enforcement duties. They respond to the same type of calls that a city officer does. |
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| Posted 2 months ago police911 says ... What's paper service, is that paperwork like writing reports? |
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| Posted 2 months ago Paper service is serving civil papers, i.e., subpoenas, eviction notices, domestic violence injunctions, etc., In Florida, the Police Dept. deals with the calls (including traffic related) inside the city limits. The Sheriffs Office deals with calls (excluding traffic related) within their county, this includes paper service and serving arrest warrants. In Florida we have the Highway Patrol vs State Police in some other states, FHP deals with all traffic related crimes, i.e., DUI, traffic crashes with criminal charges such as DUI manslaughter and some that turn out to be murder, and civil traffic infractions anywhere in the state, also has "Felony teams" that concentrate on drug interdiction on the interstate and we also arrest on warrants that we come across in the course of traffic stops or during crash investigations. |
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| Posted 2 months ago Many times, the Sheriff does the jail as well as patrol. The sheriff usually patrols areas/ cities that do not want to pay for police departments. |
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| Posted 2 months ago In Missouri, police serve municipalities whereas sheriff's serve counties. So while a police officer will mostly remain in town, the deputy may find themselves in a city or in the country, or a combination of both. There are exceptions to this. Also, a sheriff serves as an elected official, and you may get a new sheriff every 4 years, which means that we deputies have to go to the courthouse and re-take our oaths (get sworn in) under the new sheriff. Most police chiefs are appointed by city councils. To my knowledge, police officers do not have to get sworn in when the chief changes. camelcluch also makes a good distinction: that is the sheriff's office runs the county jail and as Lulusgt said, they serve warrants and papers. Go out today and preach the gospel, and if you must, use words. St. Francis of Assisi |
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| Posted 2 months ago A police department provides police services for the city it serves. A sheriff's office generally has 3 divisions: courts, jails, and police services. They divide their personnel running the jails, providing court security, and providing police service to contract cities (generally cities that don't have a police dept of their own). |
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| Posted 2 months ago A sheriff's deputy job is way more political. Like they said, every four years your job comes up for renewal just like the High Sheriff. The Sheriff is in charge of the jail and courts. They serve different types of papers out in the county and city. In our county, the deputies do not do wreck reports and issue very little citations etc. Their main job is to answer calls(in the county), serve papers (before 10pm) and keep the voters happy. The sheriff has jurisdiction county wide including the municipalities within. Police officers serve mainly warrants and ofa. They also answer calls within the city, do wreck reports, do keep checks, do whatever reports neccessary. And yes this is political as well, but not as much as the deputies. Our detectives and agents investigate incidents in the city. We have jurisdiction within the city limits up to one mile out. Our two departments do not work well together which is not a very professional attitude. One is democratic and one is republican. Go figure, how hard it is for the low men on the totum pole to co habitate. ha ha...
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| Posted 2 months ago SpartanFury says ...
same shit .... different job title. only difference really is the pay and amout of space ya gotta cover. LIFE'S JOURNEY IS NOT TO ARRIVE AT THE GRAVE SAFELY IN A WELL PRESERVED BODY BUT RATHER TO SLIDE IN SIDEWAYS, TOTALLY WORN OUT, SHOUTING "HOLY SHIT....WHAT A RIDE" |
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| Posted 2 months ago Thank you all for all your input. I greatly appreciate it. |
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| Posted 2 months ago Unless it is a commonwealth state. There Sheriff's Offices are very different than Police Departments. You also have all sorts of other jobs like constables, jailers, magistrates, etc. I know Virginia, Kentucky, Mass., Penn, and I think Ga. are the only commonwealth but I could be in error. |
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| Posted 2 months ago magnet says ...
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia Puerto Rico is also known as a commonwealth, but I'm not sure if it is actually written in their constitution. |
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| Posted 2 months ago difference in wisconsin is that sheriffs office wheres generally brown uniforms and police where blue lol |
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| Posted 2 months ago freitag402 says ...
In VA they all wear brown uniforms and, for the most part, drive brown vehcles, except in Fairfax County where they drive black (don't know who permitted them to do that...). Police wear navy blue, light blue, or gray uniforms and drive white or navy blue and white cars. Loudoun County deputies try to be police officers but still wear brown and drive white cars with brown and yellow (they'd say it was gold...) lettering. "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." - George S. Patton |
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| Posted 2 months ago magnet says ...
The job of the Sheriff in most Virginia counties and cities is to server civil process, take care of the jail and housing of prisoners, transport prisoners and provide court security. In large (rural) counties without police departments they also perform the same function as police. There are several counties in Virginia that have gone to a County Police Department (e.g. Fairfax County, Albemarle County, Prince William County). Within these counties there are incorporated cities that have their own departments. It becomes confusing sometimes as the county police may not have concurrent jurisdiction in the independent cities. The city of Fairfax , VA is a prime example. They have their own department, but the main Fairfax County Police HQ is located in the middle of the city. "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." - George S. Patton |
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| Posted 2 months ago charlie914 says ...
We do everyting you said including the typical police functions. We don't have a county police department.
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| Posted 2 months ago Flerd says ...
That's the same in many counties in Virginia. It seems the more populated the counties become, the change the role of the Sheriff here. "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." - George S. Patton |
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| Posted 2 months ago charlie914 says ...
In the WA County in which I work the most of the deputies wear black jumpsuits just like mine expect the different shoulder patches and mine has POLICE on the back vs. SHERIFF on theirs. We have black cars and they have a mix of white and white/green. The SO class A is a green shirt and tan trousers and ours is navy. You have the rest of your life to solve the problem, how long your life lasts depends on how well you do it - Clint Smith |
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| Posted 2 months ago charlie914 says ...
all the big counties around Atlanta have county pd's and so's. We just aren't large enough to seperate yet.
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| Posted 2 months ago In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Deputy Sheriffs do not have the power of arrest. They transport prisoners, do Court security and serve court papers. There is a fight on in the State Senate to give them more powers, but it is not looking good. |
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| Posted 2 months ago irishdm says ...
They should have arrest powers. That's just that many more LEO's out there. Plus if someone acts a fool at the courthouse they need to deal with not someone else.
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| Posted 2 months ago In Virginia some counties do not have a police department so the Sheriff's office is the law enforcement agency along with the corrections and court security. While the cities have a police department, the Sheriff's Office is mainly courts, warrant services, and corrections. The biggest difference though is that here the deputy works at the will of the Sherrif. (ie.. if the Sheriff comes to work one day and decides he does not like you, he can get rid of you and there is nothing you can do about it.) |
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| Posted 2 months ago xGTown5oh says ...
That's right... The Sheriff can let them go at any time. It's very political... "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." - George S. Patton |
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| Posted 2 months ago Flerd says ...
I agree wholeheartedly, but this is a place where every little town has its own police department, if they have one at all. If not then the State Police is tasked with handing all the little calls from every town. There is no such thing as a county PD in Pennsylvania. |
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| Posted 2 months ago irishdm says ...
How does the State Police handle city/town ordinances? I thought they could only handle state laws. |
