Law Enforcement Agencies In the United States

In the United States, police agencies play a major task of protecting and serving the citizens. There have been massive trials by scholars to classify the role of police into two categories; law enforcement and maintenance of order. However, in a real sense, the tasks played by the police are much more complex and varied compared to the categories highlighted above. The police are the first agency that individuals look up to when they are in trouble. Form property problems, looking for lost kids, and traffic control to solving disputes.

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The role undertaken by the police agencies is most important for enforcing the law in a nation. It can be agreed that, on the basis of civil matters, police engage in interactions with the public more often than they do on the matter that is considered criminal. This is a clarification that the primary task of the police is enforcing the law. This involves engaging in an extensive investigation of a criminal act, gathering evidence, prosecuting the criminals, and offering referrals to the court the outcomes of investigations, service of the public and maintenance of order. Police agencies also have the responsibility of offering fast response to emergency cases, threats to the safety of public, calamities, operation of correction programs as well as protecting public officials.

In the United States, law enforcement is an extreme and huge complicated structure. Nearly 18,000 federal, local and state agencies exist alongside an industry of private security which offers employment to over a million more individuals. Today, there is no any formal organization in operation for regulating or coordinating all the various agencies at the state, federal and local levels. At the local level, the government agencies responsible for law enforcement involve the County sheriffs, Municipal Police, and the County police. At the state level, agencies responsible for enforcing law involve the Bureau of criminal investigations and the state police (Peak, 2013). And lastly, the law enforcement agencies at the federal level include the Military law enforcement like the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security and the federal law enforcement agencies.

The two military departments have various branches like the Border Protection, Bureau of Customs, Drug Enforcement Agency, Customs Enforcements and the Bureau of Immigration. Other units include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigations, United States Secret Service, United States Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration and the United States Marshals Service among others. There are also special district police which is included under law enforcement. The special district police include the transit police, the public schools, university police, college, as well as the private security organizations (Carter, 2004)

The municipal police unit also referred to as the City police play a primary task within the communities in the US. The police officers at the City police unit are sworn in and have the most complex role when handling serious crimes as well as people in the neighborhoods where these officers patrol. Police officers under this department have the responsibility of different emergency services and maintenance problems like public disturbances, noncriminal events, routine patrol, traffic enforcement, minor disturbances as well as answering to miscellaneous calls.

The Municipal police units have police officers who operate as county police officers, but their operations are on a countywide basis. These officers, however, do not carry out the role of non-law enforce that is carried out by the county sheriffs. Except for the states of Hawaii and Rhode Island, other County Sheriffs in the US are elected in office. The County Sheriffs have an exceptional task since their service is to the three branches of the criminal justice; which are the corrections, the law enforcement, and the courts. The responsibilities and tasks of the personnel at the County Sheriff unit involve investigation of crime, enforcing traffic laws, routine patrol, court security, process serving, jail operations as well as rescue and search.

The special district police agencies like the college police officers and some university campus are responsible for serving government agencies. However, these agencies have a police force of their own. Most of the police officers who serve in these agencies are law enforcement agents who have been fully certified by the state. The special district police officers are sworn officers who have been certified by the stat and have the mandate to engage in the activates of the Uniform Crime Report Systems of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Report as well as make general arrests. A majority of the college and university campuses prefer to have their own private security as opposed to having officers from the government agencies. Included in the private security originations are the security personnel from private agencies who are employed privately by the organization as either full-time or as part-time workers (Whisenand, 2009).

The responsibilities and roles of these officers include patrolling and provision of protection at private and public office complexes, gaming officers and investigators, malls, housing complexes, patrol services, armored patrol services and, loss prevention specialists. As opposed to the case with the police agencies, the agencies offering private security services concentrate on more than crime and handle cases concerning consumer satisfaction, personal assets as well as property (Carter, 2004). The private institutions have the power to fire workers, pursue prosecutions in a court of justice and ban individuals from establishments. The speed enforced cameras and the red lights which are established to ticket individuals caught running red lights and over speeding are also involved in the private security.

There are three categories that compose the state law enforcement agencies. The three classes are the state police, highway patrol, and the state investigative agencies. The state police have the power to investigate crime and traffic regulations across the state. Police officers in the highway patrol category have the power to enforce traffic rules across the state and to arrest individuals found violating traffic regulations within their area of operation. It is the basic responsibility of the state law enforcement agencies to enforce traffic laws statewide on the highways. This is however done in concurrent with the local police (Peak, 2013). However, the different roles of the state law enforcement agencies differ in various states. In some states, the agencies have the responsibility of operating recruit training academies as well as training the recruits. The federal law enforcement agency is smaller and more complicated as compared to the agencies at the local levels and varies in the personnel responsibilities and roles.

At the level of federal law enforcement, the workers do not answer to the local disturbances or the 911 calls. The Border and Custom Protections have the responsibility of making sure that cargo that is entering the US is legal. It operates to ensure that illegal immigrants, weapons of mass destruction, diseased animals and plants, and drug smuggling across the borders do not occur. It is the responsibility of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce immigration and customs regulation and protect Marines, federal building, and air enforcement. The responsibility of coordination is shared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in collaboration with the government, nonprofit and private organizations to ensure effective management of emergency preparedness (Whisenand, 2009).

Transportation Security Administration has the role of offering protection to the transportation systems in a Nation. The United States Coast Guard has the responsibility for security missions which may be linked to security issues. Some of its role and responsibility involve areas such as coastal security, waterways, and ports. The United States Secret Service has the responsibility of offering protection for the sitting and former presidents, deputy presidents as well as the immediate members of their families. The issues o computer fraud and hacking and cases of money laundering are also dealt with by the US Secret Service. The sector of Drug Enforcement Administration, which is in the Justice Department, has the responsibility of ensuring that federal laws and regulations that involve controlled substance are enforced.

The focus of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is on prevention of terrorism attacks. The task of housing federal detainees, provision of security to federal courts, placing individuals who are eligible for the programs of witness protection and conducting fugitive investigations is placed under the United States Marshall Office (Whisenand, 2009). The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives has the responsibility of enforcing regulations concerning Federal firearms, investigating firearm trafficking, making sure that people who own firearms are licensed properly and preventing terrorists and criminals from being in possession of explosives. The department is also responsible for enforcement of federal regulations concerning the collection of federal taxes on tobacco products and alcohol.

The similarity between the three levels of law enforcement agencies is that t he three have the role of protecting public rights and making sure that the citizens are safe as they operate within their areas of service. These three agencies make an arrest, enforce law serve and ensure that citizens are protected in the various sections that they are allocated to work. Among the differences is, to begin with, in their employment methods. In a majority of towns and cities, the appointment of the local officers is by the respective city government through recruitment methods that vary from one city to another depending on theory regulations and rules. The members of the top management team are usually political appointees who are selected from a pool of experienced professional, because of the nature of the presences of various specialized agencies at the state level. In the federal level, and mainly in the senior management level, an appointment is conducted by the president. The presidential appointment is however made following advice and the consent of the Senate. Ion, the federal agencies, middle-level management, composes of civil servants or internal officers promoted on merit (Peak, 2013).

From the basis of their similarities and differences between management, organizational and administration roles at the three levels, they all operate under the regulations and rules that govern their areas of jurisdiction. The state police agencies adhere to the laws that are set by their operation statutes while the federal agencies adhere to federal laws. On the other hand, local agencies operate under the rules of their cities and municipalities. The local and state agencies are however under the guidance of the federal laws as the local agencies are guided by the state government laws.

There are certain leadership characteristics that police officers should have posses for them to perfume their duties effectively. They should possess technical skills, implying that they must have analytical skills and unique knowledge in the utilization of tools and techniques for particular duties and tasks. It is significant to have human skills which enable them to operate as team members for effective operation. Also, they should have conceptual skills which help them in integration and coordination of activities with less conflict.

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