Police in America. Steven G. Brandl
in more urban counties generally allocate more resources to jail operations, if they are responsible for a jail. For example, in the Cook County Sheriff’s Department (which includes the city of Chicago and the greater Chicago area), only 4% of deputies are assigned to respond to calls for service.31
Figure 3.7 The Five Largest County Sheriff’s Departments
Source: Uniform Crime Report, 2017 (Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2018).
State Law Enforcement Agencies
Each state has a primary state law enforcement agency. Depending on the state, this agency could be a highway patrol, state police, or department of public safety. Because of the variation in law enforcement agency arrangements, it is difficult to compare agencies across states. If a state has a highway patrol agency, it also has a department of public safety or its equivalent. Each of these agencies varies in its sphere of authority and jurisdiction.
State police agencies have the responsibility for providing general law enforcement services in the state. This includes traffic enforcement on state roads and highways and criminal investigations relating to drug trafficking, fraud, serial crimes, cyber and computer crimes, arson, tactical enforcement, explosives, and other matters in which local police agencies request the assistance of the state police. State police agencies also operate forensic crime laboratories, criminal information computer networks, and emergency management services, and they provide law enforcement officer training and certification. States that have this type of agency include Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey, and Colorado. The largest state police agency is the New York State Police, which numbers 5,046 sworn personnel.32
The jurisdiction of a state highway patrol agency is limited primarily to state and interstate roads, highways, and interstate highways, although these agencies may assist other law enforcement agencies on other matters when requested. Highway patrol agencies are responsible for enforcement of traffic and other laws and also regulate vehicle safety through inspections and cargo movement. Patrol is provided via marked and unmarked automobiles and often motorcycles and aircraft. Wisconsin, Georgia, Florida, and Alaska are examples of states with a highway patrol (in Wisconsin and Georgia the agency is referred to as the state patrol; in Alaska it is called the state troopers). The largest highway patrol agency is the California Highway Patrol, which has 7,401 sworn personnel.33
As noted, if a state has a highway patrol agency, it also has a related agency that provides other state law enforcement services, including investigations and forensic support. For example, Wisconsin has the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Georgia has the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Florida has the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and Alaska has the Alaska Department of Public Safety. The largest of these agencies is the Texas Department of Public Safety, which employs 4,187 sworn personnel.34
Special Jurisdiction Law Enforcement Agencies
In addition to local, county, and state law enforcement agencies, there are approximately 1,700 other public law enforcement agencies in the United States that have special jurisdictions. In total, these agencies employ about 57,000 sworn personnel. The largest share of these agencies, about 750, consists of campus police departments serving colleges and universities.35 For perspective, the largest university police department is Georgia State University (Atlanta), which has 126 sworn personnel (see Table 3.2).
Photo 3.5 There are about 750 college and university police departments in the United States that seek to ensure the safety of students, staff, and faculty.
©iStockphoto.com/sshepard
On most campuses, the police have arrest powers not only on campus but in areas adjacent to campus and property outside the area adjacent to campus.36 The overwhelming majority of campus police departments provide twenty-four-hour patrol coverage. About one-half of agencies serving public campuses use student patrols compared to about one-third of agencies that serve private campuses.37 Most campus police departments also provide safety escort services for students, staff, and faculty; usually this service is provided by nonsworn personnel.38 Almost all campus police departments have blue light phones available for emergencies. Nearly all campus police departments authorize officers to use a firearm (94%), a chemical spray (94%), and a baton (93%). Seldom are nonsworn personnel authorized to use a firearm. Most campuses have a mass notification system to alert students and others of an emergency situation; the most common of these systems are email (100%) and text messages (99%).39
Exhibit 3.1 The Clery Act and Reporting Campus Crime
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act was signed into law in 1990 as the Campus Security Act. The act requires institutions of higher education that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their campuses. The U.S. Department of Education monitors compliance. Violations can result in penalties of up to $35,000 per infraction and suspension from federal student financial aid programs. The Clery Act requires institutions to do the following:
Publish an annual campus security report that documents three calendar years of specified campus crime statistics and make it available to current and prospective students and employees.
Maintain a timely public log of all crimes reported or otherwise known to campus law enforcement officials.
Give timely warning of crimes that represent a threat to student or employee safety.
Submit an annual report to the U.S. Department of Education that includes tallies of serious crimes, hate crimes, and arrests and disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations, drug law violations, and illegal weapons possession.40
Clery Act statistics are available at http://ope.ed.gov/security/.
Table 3.2
Source: Uniform Crime Report, 2017 (Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2018)
* tally obtained via contact with the agency in January, 2019.
A Question to Consider 3.2 The Characteristics of Your Campus Police Department
Does your college or university have a police department? If yes, how many sworn officers are employed in the department? What is its geographic jurisdiction? How does your campus police department compare to typical ones as described here?
Another 250 of the special jurisdiction agencies serve public school districts, the largest of which is the School District of Philadelphia with 450 sworn officers.41 Other law enforcement agencies include those that enforce fish and wildlife conservation laws; protect transportation systems; and serve parks, airports, state government buildings, and hospitals, among others. The largest natural resource law enforcement agency is the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which employs 523 full-time sworn officers. The largest agency with transportation-related jurisdiction is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which has 1,651 sworn officers.42
A Question of Ethics
Do You Follow Policy That You Do Not Believe In?
As discussed earlier in this book, law enforcement agencies are controversial in large part because of the methods and strategies used to accomplish their mission. One extraordinary example of this is U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Among other responsibilities, officers of this agency have