Police Organizational

Police Organization

The organization of police agencies in the United States is complex. While many know the overall breakdown between federal, state and local agencies; most people do not understand the organization of the separate agencies. Starting with the most basic breakdown of agencies and their roles and responsibilities in the Unites States, federal agencies are responsible for enforcing federal level laws, state agencies are responsible for primarily state specific laws, and local agencies add in local laws. Of course, jurisdiction plays a part in this concept also, with jurisdiction being primarily restricted to the agency name. For example, state police have jurisdiction in their particular state. Events in the recent past have changed the organizational structure of several federal agencies. For example, the Department of Homeland Security was created and there are seven agencies include in this “new” department. These agencies are: Transportation Security Administration, Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Customs and Border Patrol, and Citizenship and Immigration Services. This organization of the agencies all under one department allows for sharing of information and resources. State police agencies have the type of organization. Each state may have different names for their individual departments under their control, but they will all vary from patrol to investigations. Local agencies are where organization can becomes less involved. A vast majority of agencies are small, and may have only patrol and possibly an investigation unit. While these agencies may not have the separated units for dealing with specialized situations, they can always pool additional resources from county or state agencies. An example of that would be if an agency received a threat to a local school. A small agency may not have the manpower to have a special team