Duties
Most sheriff's offices have a law enforcement role, and their basic function dates back to the origins of the title in feudal England. Although the authority of the sheriff varies from state to state, a sheriff or his deputies (in all states except Delaware, where the sheriff's defined role is going through arbitration) has the power to make arrests within his or her own jurisdiction. Some states extend this authority to adjacent counties or to the entire state.
Many sheriff's offices also perform other functions such as traffic control and enforcement, accident investigations, and maintenance and transportation of prisoners. Larger departments may perform criminal investigations or engage in other specialized law enforcement activities. Some larger sheriff's departments may have aviation (including fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters), canine units, mounted details, or water patrols at their disposal.
Many sheriff's departments enlist the aid of local neighborhoods, using a community policing strategy, in working to prevent crime. The National Neighborhood Watch Program, sponsored by the National Sheriffs' Association, allows citizens and law enforcement officials to cooperate in keeping communities safe.
As the trends of sheriff's law enforcement duties becoming more extensive and complex continues, new career opportunities for people with specialized skills are opening up in sheriff's offices around the country. Among the specialties now in demand are underwater diving, piloting, boating, skiing, radar technology, communications, computer technology, accounting, emergency medicine, and foreign languages.
Sheriff's offices may coexist with other county level law enforcement agencies such as county police, county park police, etc.
Read more about this topic: Sheriffs In The United States
Famous quotes containing the word duties:
“If property had simply pleasures, we could stand it; but its duties make it unbearable. In the interest of the rich we must get rid of it.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The duties which a police officer owes to the state are of a most exacting nature. No one is compelled to choose the profession of a police officer, but having chosen it, everyone is obliged to live up to the standard of its requirements. To join in that high enterprise means the surrender of much individual freedom.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“He is asleep. He knows no longer the fatigue of the work of deciding, the work to finish. He sleeps, he has no longer to strain, to force himself, to require of himself that which he cannot do. He no longer bears the cross of that interior life which proscribes rest, distraction, weaknesshe sleeps and thinks no longer, he has no more duties or chores, no, no, and I, old and tired, oh! I envy that he sleeps and will soon die.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)