Questions about sheriffs

Question

I understand that the city police and the state troopers enforce traffic laws. Do the sheriffs also enforce traffic laws? If not, What are their duties? (Court, jail.. etc) what else?

Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

if an area is incorporated into a city and they have thier own police dept they enforce local laws and traffic laws. a sheriff is over a county jurisdication with the same roles and rights as a police chief. ditto for the state troopers. they do the same jobs different jurisdications.  

Answer 2

In Texas the sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer of the county and is expected to run the jail, provide physical security for the county and district courthouses and provide law enforcement to the rural unincorporated areas of the county.  They enforce traffic and penal law along with serving civil paperwork.  All in all one of the least respected bust most diverse type of law enforcement.

Answer 3

The Sheriff's Office I work for does everything a city police agency does.  We have a patrol division that enforces traffic law and criminal laws. We have, of course the entire county, plus we provide police service the residents of the unincorporated areas of the county.  Any road, town, highway, building, etc within the county is in our jurisdiction.  We have detectives, forensics, SWAT, K9, everything.  We also maintain the county jail and court house.

Every Sheriff's Office plays a different role in what part of the county their in.  Some Sheriff's don't have a patrol division.  Some do.  The Sheriff is the highest ranking law enforcement official in the county they are elected in.  Law only requires Sheriff's provide a jail and court security.  But as you can see all agencies, large and small, do different things.

Answer 4

It depends on the jurisdiction.

I sheriffed in a county where the city police worked accidents, wrote tickets, investigated crimes EXCEPT that we also occasionally did all of this.

As sworn and certified POST (Peace Officers Standards and Training) law enforcement officers, we had the same powers as the city police, but per custom in our jurisdiction, we divided the duties.

Sherifff also ran the county jail (as opposed to the city jail for overniters), transported prisoners, and did security for the courts.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Depends on where you're at.  In my county we have many cities that have "unincorporated" areas, which means they are not technically in the city. The SO is responsible for those places. They also take care of evictions and other writs.