Police Establishment in the USA

There is a vast police system in the USA. There are approximately 17,000 police agencies in the USA. The constitutional principle of federalism results in three levels of law enforcement: federal, state, local.

For the most part FEDERAL law enforcement responsibilities reside the Treasure Dpt. and the Justice Dpt.

Treasure is divided into: Bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms; Internal revenue service; US customs service; US secret service.

Justice Dpt. is divided into: FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; US Marshal Service; Immigration and naturalization service. The most common STATE law enforcement agency is the state police or highway patrol. The first police organization was the Texas Rangers, which was established in 1855. Most of highway patrols concentrate on traffic accidents. State Police agencies were created to investigate criminal activities that transcended city or county jurisdictional boundaries.

The most common LOCAL police agencies are: city or municipal police and county agencies.

County police agencies include sheriffs departments and county police agencies. County police departments are police organizations that report to a county commission or other form of county government and are independent of the sheriff. Many counties have both "sheriffs departments" and county police departments.

Sheriffs are elected officials; they have substantial independence from county governments.