Police Functions
Jeremy Barnett
CJA394
June 9, 2014
The United States have a more deferent approach to policing than in other countries. In 1999, the U.S. had almost twenty-thousand police agencies located throughout the nation, in comparison to Canada's reported 461 agencies, and England's less than 50 agencies (Holian, 2007). The policing agencies across the U.S. are a large network that have overlapping authorities and jurisdictions made-up of local, state and federal levels. These levels are comprised of municipalities, cities, counties, states, and federal departments. These levels provide a number of services and organizations among a diverse society by enforcing laws, arresting offenders, providing criminal prevention education, answering emergency calls for help, and maintaining law and order. Each of these levels of policing have goals stipulated by the government, along with departmental goals that they strive to obtain while providing service for the public.
The different levels of policing
The basic roles of local policing agencies is patrolling the communities that they serve, supplying the public with emergency services, enforcing the laws, performing investigations, and administering incarceration centers as well as community education (Sanchez-Leguelinel, C.,n.d.). At the state level, a number of responsibilities are the same in the roles of local police with a few exceptions, such as providing transport for prisoners or escorting government officials. This agency also renders assistance to other law enforcement agencies when needed. (" Education Portal", 2013-2014). The differences between these two policing levels can be summed up by their resources or services that they provide, staffing numbers, budgets, and jurisdictions. The federal policing agencies are tasked to handling certain kinds of crimes, such as terrorism, cyber-crime, organized crime, or white-collar crime....