Policing in American Society Describe and Analyze

Policing in American Society

Describe and analyze the relationship between the U.S. government and the policing organizations throughout the U.S. And the impact of this relationship on American society as a whole.

Police departments in the United States exist on the federal, state, and local levels of government. "There are 65 federal agencies and 27 offices of inspector general that employ full time personnel authorized to make arrests and carry firearms" (Types of police/law enforcement agencies, 2011, Discover Policing). Examples of such agencies include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Prisons, the FBI, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, all of which have jurisdiction to enforce federal laws within these specifically-designated areas. On the state and local level, there are more than 17,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States and these divisions "range in size from one officer to more than 30,000" (Types of police/law enforcement agencies, 2011, Discover Policing).

Local police officers are given the responsibility of enforcing the laws of their particular jurisdiction, patrolling, and investigating local crimes. There are, however, many examples of overlapping jurisdictions. For example, in addition to highway patrols, state police can assist the local police agencies within the state when they need additional resources. There are also officers within local and state police departments with special jurisdictions, such as parks, schools, airports, hospitals, housing and government buildings. Sheriff's offices can enforce state laws at the local county level (Types of police/law enforcement agencies, 2011, Discover Policing).

The federal government may 'step in' when a local crime is revealed to take place on an interstate level or involve transgressions of federal laws. Ultimately, the federal government is the law of the land. The U.S. Supreme Court can find state laws to be unconstitutional. A good example of this phenomenon are cases involving civil rights violations, when laws are found to disproportionately affect minorities or violate defendant's rights to counsel or citizens' protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. In contrast to local police, federal agencies have the responsibility of enforcing federal law all over the nation, although specific agencies must also keep within the boundaries of their legal jurisdictions. America began as a society with a strong federalist orientation and even after the end of the Civil War, there has remained a strong tendency to emphasize the value of local law enforcement to enforce local standards. This sense of community standards, however, has resulted in often wildly inconsistent policing and, many allege, injustices, in terms of how different groups are penalized for the same crimes in different areas of the nation, despite the Supreme Court's efforts to ensure that laws are enforced fairly.