State police
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[edit] United States
In the United States, state police are a police body unique to each U.S. state, having statewide authority to conduct law enforcement activities and criminal investigations. In general, they perform functions outside the normal or the county sheriff, such as enforcing traffic laws on state highways and interstate expressways, overseeing the security of the state capitol complex, protecting the governor, training new officers for local police forces too small to operate an academy, providing technological and scientific support services, and helping to coordinate multi-jurisdictional task force activity in serious or complicated cases in those states that grant full police powers statewide. A general trend has be to bring all of these agencies under a state Department of Public Safety. Additionally they may be under several agencies, such as the Highway Patrol being under the state Department of Transportation. Some states have both a State Police and A Highway patrol, such as Arkansas and Rhode Island.
They have emerged at various times in the history of each particular state, alternately evolving from corps of mounted rangers (the term trooper coming from cavalry parlance) or being newly established as a fully motorized highway patrol.
[edit] State Police
Twenty-three U.S. states actually call their state police by the term "State Police." In this case state police are general-power law enforcement officers with statewide jurisdiction, who conduct patrols and respond to calls for service and perform all the other aforementioned duties. The State Police may be the name of the entire agency or it may fall under a Department of Public Safety. These states are: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
- Note 1: The California State Police was merged with the California Highway Patrol. The CSP was a security police agency.
- Note 2: The Alaska State Police was renamed Alaska State Troopers in 1967.
[edit] Highway Patrol
In other states the state police are known by different names. However, most have the same jurisdiction over the entire state as the agencies that are simply called "State Police". The names are usually historical and do not necessarily describe the agency's function or jurisdiction. They may exist as part of or separate from the state police:
- State Highway Patrol (Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio);
- Highway Patrol (California, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming),
- State Patrol (Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Washington, Wisconsin);
[edit] Other State Police agencies
- State Bureaus of Investigation (SBI) - the state's detectives.
- State Bureau of Narcotics - the state's [DEA]].
- Department of Public Safety or DPS, exist in 30 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Vermont), many of which contain the State Police and in some cases the Highway Patrol.
- Hawaii where the State of Hawaii Sheriff's Office , part of the Hawaii Departent of Public Safety, serves as the state-wide law enforcement agency.
- Motor Carrier Enforcement - another organization with many various titles and may be part of the actual State Police or Highway Patrol. Many belong the their state's Department of Transportation. Conducts vehicle inspections and enforces the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) as mandated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). It conducts safety inspections of commercial motor vehicles (primarily trucks and buses), inspects highway shipments of hazardous materials, and performs compliance reviews (safety performance audits) on motor carriers. The DPS adopts and enforces driver and vehicle safety regulations and hazardous materials regulations as part of this program.
- Marine Patrol
[edit] Territorial police
- Territory of Guam Police Department
- American Samoa Department of Public Safety
- Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety
- United States Virgin Islands Police Department
- Puerto Rico Commonwealth Police
[edit] Commonwealth countries
In Australia, India, and Pakistan, the state police are the primary arrangement for law enforcement, and thus provide all local law enforcement services, even in large cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.
In India, the State Police have law enforcement powers across the entire state. India does not have a system of sheriffs and local city/town police units. The state police do the recruitment and the training, and also run the forensic labs, etc. For major cities there is a special city specific police force, under the command of a Commissioner of Police. They are the Metropolitan Police in the major cities like Mumbai and Calcutta. However, it should be noted that these police forces are just a separate unit in the state police. The members of the Metropolitan Police get recruited and trained as State police officers, but on training they get posted to the Metropolitan Police. They also can be transferred back to any other place in the state. Sheriffs in India are strictly ceremonial postioin.
For administrative and jurisdictional purposes, some cities have two police forces: the city police under the command of the Commissioner of Police, and the rural district (the district in which the city is located) under the command of a Superintendent of Police. However, these units don't work in a vacuum, and officers can get transferred from Rural Police to the City Police.
The Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador have provincial, or territorial police forces, which are roughly analogous to U.S. state police forces. The territorial police for other provinces and many municipalities is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
[edit] Other countries
Landespolizei (the term literally translating to "State Police") operate in each Land (state) of the Federal Republic of Germany. The police force of Liechtenstein is also referred to as Landespolizei [1].
Several nationalities in the Kingdom of Spain possess their own police force akin to "State Police", like Ertzaintza in Euskadi and Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia.
The Italian State Police is a national police agency which usually restricts its activities to the larger towns and cities of Italy, while the Carabinieri is active in small towns, rural and border areas.
Each state in Brazil has a Polícia Militar, and (despite the somewhat misleading name they are uniformed gendarmerie forces fulfilling roles as state police)a Policia Civil (the SBI.
The Republic of Ireland has a single police force that handles all policing activities in the nation, known as the Garda Síochána.
