American Law Enforcement: Difference between revisions
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{{quote| ''[[The Simpsons|That's nice work, boys!]]''}}▼
[[File:oU7M4_9695.jpg|frame|[[Donut Mess with a Cop|What, no donuts?]]]]
The United States uses a [[American Federalism|federal system of government]]. In theory, this means that the States hold general police power, while the national government only has power over crime between different states, crimes affecting interstate commerce, criminals who cross state lines, or crime committed by members of the national armed forces, or crime that crosses the international borders.
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== Local Police ==
Normally, the law and police have power from the State in which they are in. State law authorizes local and city governments to form police departments and establishes their jurisdiction. Thus, most policing is from the city and county police forces.
City police forces (the [[New York City Cops|New York City Police Department]], the Los Angeles Police Department, etc.) handle most crimes in their cities. They are headed by a Commissioner, [[Da Chief|Chief]], or Superintendent, who is usually appointed by the Mayor. (What constitutes "handling crime" can be a matter of some debate in cities that melt down in social/political chaos, like Sanford, Baltimore, or Ferguson.)
The Sheriff's office or department is the typical name for a county-level local police agency, and handles crimes where people flee between cities, or where the crimes take place in areas not incorporated into a municipality below the county level. The Sheriff is usually an elected office. Most of the Sheriff's force are deputies, which are hired positions. Sheriffs in the [[Deep South]] have a stereotype of being racist hicks, prone to pulling people over for "driving while black". Sheriffs or county marshals almost always serve as the primary enforcement arm of the local courts, serving warrants, writs, and other court orders, and running the local jail (in many places, these roles may be all that the sheriff is responsible for). Sheriff are also commonly designated in many places by law as the county coroner, often a position called the "Sheriff-Coroner," and has responsibility for finding and properly handling unclaimed dead bodies in the county (and, very often, also running the local medical examiner's office). Sheriff's offices may also handle specialized and expensive law enforcement resources, like criminalistics laboratories, helicopters, search and rescue teams, or SWAT teams and make these available to local police agencies too small to have their own versions of these.
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Of course, this doesn't apply everywhere. In some places the police have completely supplanted the Sheriff as the primary law enforcement officer, in which case the Sheriff may shift into a role similar to the U.S. Marshals (see below) as an enforcement arm of the courts...or they may have had those duties assigned to the Staties or another agency, in which case they don't really serve much of a purpose but continue to stick around anyway. (9 out of 10 New Yorkers won't know that the [http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/services/services_enforcement.shtml New York City Sheriff's Office] still exists, let alone what they do.) Naturally, this varies depending on where you are, because if there is one thing Americans love, it is for every little town to have their own way of doing things and their own set of laws. They're also often given jobs city police forces find too difficult or that don't fall clearly into any one agency's jurisdiction; e.g. the Los Angeles Sherriff's Department polices Southern California's passenger railways, including the LA subway.
Wait! We drifted off 'simple' for a second.
As far as an example of enforcement goes, the hierarchy for Beverly Hills in California is like this: Beverly Hills, then LA County Sheriff, then California; unless the miscreant flees from Beverly Hills to Malibu via non-county or state roadways. Then it is Beverly Hills, LAPD, California State, then Los Angeles County Sheriff (via contract with Malibu City). State and federal come later, depending on what the miscreant was up to.
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== FBI ==
[[File:Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.svg|thumb|The FBI seal, commonly seen in media.]]
For National laws, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), serving as both the principal federal criminal investigative body and a domestic intelligence agency. Note that although they are the "investigative arm" of the DOJ, they don't answer to them. The Director of the FBI answers to the Director of National Intelligence and to the President of the United States.
It was founded in 1908 and became famous in the 1930s for its battles with organized crime. During [[World War II]] it outwitted German Intelligence and nabbed a number of spies attempting to penetrate the United States.
For nearly 50 years the FBI was headed by J. Edgar Hoover, who blurred the line between effective administrator and paranoid tyrant. He tapped phones and assembled files on...well, we can't really be sure about how many people he was spying on, since the files were all destroyed after his death. He was also supposedly a crossdresser.
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Since copyright falls under federal law, the FBI puts warnings that they will raid copyright infringers and slap them with heavy fines and prison sentences on every videotape and DVD sold in America. How much they actually do this depends upon the film industry's <s>bribes</s> campaign contributions to Congress this term.
The FBI also may be called in to investigate local and State police if there is a conflict of interest or accusations of corruption. National law gives them the power to investigate if anyone's "Civil Rights" are violated. Since one of the rights is the right to a fair trial, this automatically covers corruption or brutality.
The FBI is automatically called in if a crime crosses state lines, or in special cases for crimes that do not but that fall under federal jurisdiction for one reason or another (there are over 200 categories of such crimes). A federal crime typically involves something that crosses state lines or involves multiple states or interstate commerce, or one that interferes directly with the federal government's
* Although they do investigate serial mailbox destruction as it is a sign of tampering the mail and crimes like identity theft. Also since Banks are federally insured, they investigate Bank robberies and white collar crimes associated with them.
* Additionally, they are allowed to investigate any crime which uses interstate communications. Recently it has become involved in such matters as the investigation of Cybercrime.
* And as far as mailboxes, most people don't realize that the Post Office has its own police force so chances are, they handle it first before passing it on to the FBI.
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* During WWII, G-Men operated undercover in Latin America keeping tabs on the Germans (remember Cary Grant in ''Notorious''). The CIA took over this function after 1947 (but probably became less focused on the Germans).
* Aside from the fact that having too many [[Men in Black]] crawling around in the system is dangerous, the [[CIA]] will often not want to follow normal police procedure. If an enemy asset is arrested then the enemy will know he has disappeared. And of course if he is arraigned then they have a big headache of convicting him without revealing evidence. Whereas a spy agency can follow him to [[Always a Bigger Fish|bigger fish]] or [[Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word|lean on him]] or just make sure he [[Feed the Mole|steals the information they want him to.]]
== U.S. Marshals ==
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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (abbreviated ATF or BATFE) handles [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. One of its predecessor agencies, the Bureau of Prohibition, was home to Eliot Ness's "Untouchables."
Started out in the Treasury Department (hence references to Ness & co as "T-Men" in stories, or at least in [[Crossword Puzzle
The ATF has been a highly controversial agency, in part for its role in the middle of [[American Gun Politics]], as well as several colossal blunders over the years (including their involvement in the Ruby Ridge and Waco sieges in the 1990s, as well as, more recently, the Operation "Fast and Furious" gunrunning scandal). Cynical observers of US politics have observed however that keeping the agency around, in a weakened and discredited state, has been more politically useful to gun rights proponents, such as the NRA, than seriously reforming the agency or abolishing it and giving its duties to another agency, like the FBI.
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== Customs and Immigration ==
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is also [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. It used to be a few separate agencies, but they've been merged, split, and shuffled around a lot in the last few years. Right now they're in Homeland Security, but check back in a couple minutes. It may also be referred to by Spanish-speakers (and Spanish-speaking characters) as "La Migra", a nickname inherited from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The previous agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), was abolished with the passage of the Homeland Security Act in 2002. It is, however, a [[Discredited Trope]] since many works of fiction continue to use the name.
The Border Patrol is actually part of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency that's separate from ICE because they have slightly different missions CBP works mainly at the border and at border crossings. They are also charged with preventing illegal things from crossing the border whereas ICE is responsible for dealing with contraband and illegal entrants after they have crossed.
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The [[Coast Guard|U.S. Coast Guard]] used to be part of the Department of Transportation but after 9/11 was moved to the Department of Homeland Security. Originally, the Coast Guard was a Treasury Department agency concerned with stopping smugglers. Its additional duties became ocean/waterways safety and rescue, as well as checking shipping. During wartime, the Coast Guard would be moved to the Department of Defense (but would maintain its status as an independent service) and would also handle coastal and waterway defense. Since the "[[War On Drugs]]", the Coast Guard began to change and now spends 95% of their efforts in drug interdiction.
US law means that anything between the coast and 3 nautical miles (5.6
Coast Guardsmen also serve on Navy and Marine ships in LEDETs (Law Enforcement DETatchments) to handle any civilian-type boardings and such. The Navy and Marines both act as if subject to Posse Comitatus, while the CG is not and does not. Port Security Units are also deployed just about everywhere as, well, Port Security.
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The National Guard aren't really a police force, more reservists for the [[Yanks With Tanks]]. Each state has an Air National Guard, who play a part in US air defense and get to fly F-16s. 20 Presidents have been in the National Guard at some point in their lives.
The main role in terms of law enforcement is in the field of riot control. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the use of the regular military in domestic law enforcement, but does allow the National Guard to be used. The Guard's other main role has nothing to do with law enforcement at
The National Guard is run by state and is under the authority of the Governor of that state. The President can, however, "federalize" a state National Guard, placing them under his or her control. The most notable case was in 1957, where Arkansas National Guard troopers were taken into federal command to enforce racial desegregation in Little Rock schools.
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He is vengeance. He is the night. He has no jurisdiction.
However, any individual, anywhere in the United States, including a civilian, may arrest a person who commits a felony in their presence. Usually they can also arrest for a misdemeanor committed in their presence as well. Of course, some random civilian telling you to "stop right there!" lacks the oomph that hearing it from a person with a badge does
== NCIS ==
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== Air Marshals ==
Despite the name, they don't work for the U.S. Marshals. Look, if you're this far into Useful Notes on America and you were still expecting something to make sense, it's really your own fault at this point. The Federal Air Marshal Service, commonly referred to as the Air Marshals, are a federal law enforcement agency supervised by the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. They were actually founded in 1968 and existed as a very minor subset of Customs and Immigration. Then, one day, all that changed. Go on, guess the day. I'll give you a hint: It was in the early fall of 2001.
After 9/11 the FAMS was massively expanded and moved into the newly created TSA. They carry concealed weapons and sit on board regular flights while posing as normal passengers. Unlike most branches of law enforcement, they act pre-emptively. Air Marshals go where no crime has been committed, so that they will be in place to respond should anything (like, oh let's say, 3 or 4 men with box cutters attempting to take control of the plane) occur.
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[[Category:Useful Notes/The United States]]
[[Category:American Law Enforcement]]
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