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County Sheriff as a Distinctive Policing Modality

NCJ Number
163016
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 14 Issue: 3/4 Dated: (1995) Pages: 123-149
Author(s)
D N Falcone; L E Wells
Date Published
1995
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This paper argues that county-level policing, accomplished mainly through the office of the county sheriff, is an historically different mode of policing that must be distinguished more clearly from municipal policing.
Abstract
Given the scarcity of systematic research and extensive empirical data on sheriffs, this discussion yields empirically derived, but no quantitatively verified, generalizations about patterns, variations, and differences among sheriffs' offices and police departments. Empirical testing of these hypotheses will require additional studies and data collections that are not yet available. The office of the county sheriff has a distinct evolution within American policing that has led to different community functions and different organizational features when compared with conventional municipal police departments. This paper examines possible differences between municipal and county- level policing along several analytical dimensions: historical, political, geographical, functional, organizational, and regional variations; it suggests how research might document and explicate these differences. The authors conclude that because of its wide- ranging duties and responsibilities, the office of sheriff is a necessary and effective general-purpose police agency and will most likely continue to be such as long as county-level government exists. Of central importance to policing is the fact that sheriffs' organizations constitute a distinctive policing modality, devoid of many of the trappings and shortcomings of the traditional paramilitary municipal police model. 4 notes and 34 references

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