Investigation of Crime Essay Example

Law enforcement agencies perform many functions to protect society. Policing organizations are responsible for keeping order, crime prevention, public service, and law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies are divided into local, state, and federal agencies, that operate together to perform many tasks in controlling, deterring, and fighting crime. These agencies may work independently but they at times come together and combine their resources to combat a crime where necessary. All the three agencies carry criminal investigations but at the different level.

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The local agencies are the first line of defense against crime. At this level, the local police officers are charged with the responsibility of investigating any criminal activity reported at the agency ("Federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies," n.d.). The investigation procedure involves interrogating the suspects, collect evidence from the crime scene, conduct surveillance of the suspect and then make arrests. The suspect is then taken to the police station where the officer in charge has to write and file the report regarding the case at hand. The arrested person may then appear in court as witness or suspect. There are state highway patrol officers with limited authority to perform general law enforcement roles like investigating crimes that occur in the presence of state troopers or near state high way. The state highway patrol has statewide jurisdiction, but the main function is traffic enforcement and controlling crime on the highways ("Federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies," n.d.). Unlike highway patrol officers, however, state police agencies operate criminal investigative units in addition to their uniformed patrol divisions.

The federal agency is a legal part of the executive branch of the government of U.S and is independent of other law enforcement agencies ("Federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies," n.d.). It investigates over 200 categories of federal crimes. It usually assists other law enforcement agencies following its extensive fingerprints files plus other records.at this level, the primary roles of most officers are investigations and enforcement together with court operations, correction related duties and security. The officers at federal law enforcement agencies perform similar tasks as both local and state officers but with much greater jurisdiction.

Law enforcement organization plays vital roles and responsibilities in regards to criminal investigations. Detectives in plainclothes usually carry out the criminal investigation at the local law enforcement within a given municipality. They visit the crime scenes where they interview the possible witnesses as well as the suspects and then collect the evidence that might help in the investigations. At the state level, the officers detect and prevent crimes within a particular state ("Federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies," n.d.). They also provide support to the local agencies especially in the counties with limited resources for fighting crime. The federal agencies are charged with the duties of preventing, detecting and investigating crimes that occur at the national level or within multiple jurisdictions ("Federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies," n.d.). Federal also offers support to both local and state agency when called upon. All the three law enforcement agencies work within specific locations. Every region has its rules and regulations that appear different to the others. Therefore, the officers may not find it easy in case their cross to other people's jurisdictions. The officers may fail to achieve their mission of crossing into another province following the applicable rules that exist in different regions. In case of a criminal incident that involves two jurisdictions, it is the federal agency that would carry out the investigations. The agency is mandated with the duties of investigating crimes within multiple jurisdictions.

References

Federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://users.soc.umn.edu/~samaha/cases/federal_and_local_law_enforcement_agencies.html