Police organizations operate at various levels in the United States. There are also different roles within individual police agencies. This section will break down those varying levels and roles/responsibilities. When you mention the police, most individuals think of their local police departments; i.e. city or county agencies, but in reality, there are various police entities at various levels of the government. Due to this, the roles of the police at these different levels, have varying responsibilities. This also means they work in different environments and take on different tasks. Throughout this section, we will dive into an array of careers one could have in the policing or law enforcement field.

Levels of Policing

Just as the United States Government is organized on a federal, state, county, and city hierarchy, police organizations are as well. Each level of government and even subsections within that level have specific law enforcement responsibilities. We will break each of these down and reference some of the different titles and roles they carry.

Federal Level

The federal arena of law enforcement is tasked with investigating and enforcing federal laws as well as protecting federal-level politicians and dignitaries. The federal law enforcement career options vary from working for border patrol to protecting dignitaries to investigating federal law violations. Federal officers are hired within specific federal law enforcement agencies and have specific roles and responsibilities. Their duties do not cross over. For example, if someone is hired with the Secret Service their primary duties will be those related to executive branch dignitary protection, whereas if someone is hired with the U.S. Marshals, their primary duties will be to apprehend federal fugitives and provide dignitary protection for the judicial branch.

Click on any of the links to learn more about some of the more well-known Federal Law Enforcement agencies:

• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) [Website]
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [Website]
• Customs and Border Protection (CBP) [Website]
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) [Website]
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [Website]
• Federal Protective Service (FPS) [Website]
• Secret Service [Website]
• U.S. Marshals Service [Website]

State Level

In the United States, law enforcement agencies vary in name and duties, with distinctions often reflecting their primary functions. Highway Patrol agencies primarily focus on traffic-related functions, while State Police typically engage in a broader range of tasks. For instance, State Police agencies commonly incorporate specialized investigation sections, crime labs, and training divisions into their operations. In states where Highway Patrol exists, it may be combined with a State Bureau of Investigation to fulfill comprehensive state-level law enforcement duties. State Police serve individual states, with examples such as the Oregon State Police (OSP) in Oregon and the Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) in Nevada, which operates under the Nevada Department of Public Safety. Officers commissioned by the state, often referred to as troopers, have powers of arrest and primarily patrol highways and interstates to enforce laws.

However, many State Police agencies also conduct investigations into various crimes and operate divisions such as criminal forensic labs and departments of fish and wildlife. The specific duties of each state agency are tailored to the needs and circumstances of their respective states.

See an image of four Oregon State Troopers in figure 6.5 below, and check out the Oregon State Police’s website to learn more.

County Level

There are approximately 3,143 counties in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). Each county has an elected Sheriff and deputies who work directly under the Sheriff. Deputies are no different from any other city police officer or state trooper other than the Sheriff can be responsible for the courts and jails (a.k.a. correctional facilities) in their respective counties. Depending on their size and location, counties can cover a variety of geographical areas and responsibilities. It is important to refer to it as the “Office of the Sheriff” or the “Sheriff’s Office” rather than a “Sheriff Department” to emphasize the constitutional and elected nature of the sheriff’s role, highlighting that the sheriff is an elected official entrusted with law enforcement duties, rather than merely the head of a bureaucratic department. This distinction underscores the sheriff’s accountability to the community through the democratic process, reinforcing the principles of transparency, legitimacy, and public oversight within law enforcement agencies.

Click on the links to learn more about some of Oregon’s (Sheriff’s Offices) County Law Enforcement agencies:

• Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office [Website]
• Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office [Website]
• Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office [Website]
• Jackson County Sheriff’s Office [Website]
• Marion County Sheriff’s Office [Website]
• Morrow County Sheriff’s Office [Website]
• Polk County Sheriff’s Office [Website]
• Washington County Sheriff’s Office [Website]

When compared, these counties’ demographics and service areas vary greatly, yet their responsibilities are very similar.

City Level

City (also known as Municipal) police officers work under a municipality or city. If a city has a government, i.e., mayor, city council members, and a municipal code (misdemeanor laws for the city), then the city can have city police. If an officer works for a city, their title is a police officer. Some cities have a connected jail (also known as a corrections or detention facility), while others are operated by the County Sheriff. The head of any city police agency is called the chief. City or municipal police chiefs are typically appointed by city officials, such as the mayor or city council, based on their qualifications, experience, and leadership abilities, with the goal of ensuring effective law enforcement and community safety within the city or municipality. This is much different than county agencies, which are led by elected Sheriffs.

City police officers handle all police calls for service within their city limits. This can range from basic law violations to felony crimes that may occur. Small city agencies often are tasked with all of these types of cases, whereas larger cities may have assignment opportunities to include specialty positions like detectives, K-9 officers, etc.

Click on the links to learn more about some of Oregon’s City Law Enforcement agencies:

• Ashland Police Department [Website]
• Redmond Police Department [Website]
• Eugene Police Department [Website]
• Lincoln City Police Department [Website]
• Medford Police Department [Website]
• Monmouth Police Department [Website]
• Portland Police Bureau [Website]
• Salem Police Department [Website]

For a more complete list of law enforcement agencies (state, county, municipal/city) visit Discover Policing [Website].

Divisions within Each Agency

Law enforcement agencies, whether they are federal, county, state, or city, generally have jobs available within two major areas: 1.) Commissioned (Sworn) and 2.) Civilian (Unsworn). Commissioned or sworn is a term that describes an employee who has been through police training is certified as a police officer, and has arresting powers in the state. Civilian or unsworn is a term that describes an employee who has not been through police training and does not have arresting powers.

One of the interesting parts of policing is the vast array of jobs available. Whether a person is looking in the commissioned or civilian arena, there are many choices. Once a candidate has gone through the testing process for a particular law enforcement agency and is hired after a certain number of years commissioned “on the road” (length of time required performing routine patrol/police duties “on the road” is determined by each agency) the seasoned officer can then test for other “specialty positions.” Every department is different as to these specialized divisions. For example, the Ashland Police Department (APD) in Oregon is a smaller police department and offers its officers a chance to engage in community policing and problem-oriented policing at a one-on-one level, due to its smaller size (less than 40 officers).

On the other hand, because of its smaller size, the opportunities for advancement are minimal. Officers with the department can also be promoted to management. APD does have a few detectives but they do not offer its officers the more glamorous divisions such as those offered by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) in Oregon. An officer at PPB can be assigned to the following divisions: Air Support Unit, Alarms Unit, Behavioral Health Unit, Criminal Intelligence Unit, Detective Division, Family Services Division, Human Trafficking Unit, Narcotics, and Organized Crime, Professional Standards Division, Property and Evidence Division, Special Emergency Reaction Team, Strategic Communications Unit, Traffic Division, Training Division, and more.

Policing can be multifaceted, thereby keeping its officers engaged. The daily job of a police officer, depending on the respective department, can change with divisions and assignments. One year, a police officer may be writing a traffic citation from a patrol car, and the next year, the same police officer may be driving an off-road all-terrain vehicle (ATV), patrolling the local park, or riding a mounted horse in the downtown area.

The civilian areas of each police agency are also crucial. Not every person is meant to go into law enforcement as a police officer. It is a strenuous and stressful job that attracts many but is only made for a few. However, there are many options in the law enforcement realm. Civilians are the other half of the equation and are a much-needed resource for every law enforcement agency. When an individual dials 9-1-1, a dispatcher answers the phone, and that dispatcher is a civilian. When a police officer finds heroin on a suspect, takes custody of it, and later books it into evidence at the police station, the evidence technician is the civilian who logs and follows through with the chain of custody for the heroin evidence. Civilians are just as important as the commissioned positions at a law enforcement agency.

Contact with Outside Agencies

It takes a team to accomplish policing. One federal, state, county, or city police agency cannot do it alone. In order to succeed the agencies must work together. Whether a narcotics division works with the ATF or an entire SWAT team composed of officers from various city and county agencies, the team concept in policing is unwavering.

Dangers of Police Work

Police work is inherently dangerous, with officers facing various risks and threats in the line of duty. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, causes of death among law enforcement officers include gunfire, vehicular accidents, and assaults. However, the dangers of policing extend beyond physical harm; the stress and psychological toll associated with the profession are significant factors affecting officer well-being. For instance, Bend Police Department Sgt. John Lawrence’s death from a heart attack in 2014 underscores the impact of stress on law enforcement personnel.

Sergeant John Lawrence, pictured in Figure 6.6, suffered a fatal heart attack following his shift, in which he responded to a bank holdup alarm. He returned home after completing his shift but collapsed three hours later. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Sgt. Lawrence was 43 years old. Sergeant Lawrence had served with the Bend Police Department for ten years and had previously served with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office for 4.5 years. He is survived by his wife and two children. After his death, those who knew him say they miss his calm in stressful situations, his sense of humor, and his laugh. You can learn more about any one of the over 26,000 officers who have died in service to our country at the Officer Down Memorial Page [Website]. This organization began in 1996 by then college student Chris Cosgriff. Today, Cosgriff continues this work saying, “When a police officer is killed, it’s not an agency that loses an officer, it’s an entire nation.”

Chronic stress of law enforcement can lead to damage to the heart and blood vessels, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Recognizing the importance of officer wellness, many police departments are implementing initiatives to mitigate these risks. These efforts include promoting physical fitness, providing mental health support services, and incorporating practices such as on-duty yoga and mindfulness training to alleviate stress. Despite these measures, the statistics from Blue H.E.L.P. on officer suicides highlight the pressing need for continued focus on mental health support within law enforcement communities. Addressing the mental health challenges faced by officers is essential in safeguarding their well-being and ensuring their ability to serve and protect their communities effectively.

In 2022, according to data from the Officer Down Memorial Page, 264 law enforcement officers tragically lost their lives due to various causes, including gunfire, vehicular accidents, and assaults. However, in the same year, statistics from Blue H.E.L.P. indicate that 160 officers died by suicide, underscoring the sobering reality that mental health challenges, including stress and trauma, pose one of the most significant risks to law enforcement personnel. The Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act required the FBI to compile the deaths of officers by suicide beginning in 2022. If you would like to learn more, check out the data at the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection [Website].

Police Related Case Law

There are lots of cases that have been decided in a court of law, setting precedents and thus requirements for law enforcement officers. We will cover just a couple of the cases that impact the daily responsibilities of police officers in more detail in this section.

Fourth Amendment/Search and Seizure

As described in Raber’s Criminal Court Processes and Procedures, The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from “overzealous efforts by law enforcement to root out crime by ensuring that police have good reason before they intrude on people’s lives with criminal investigations.”

The text of the Fourth Amendment is as follows:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The amendment places limits on both searches and seizures: searches are efforts to locate documents and contraband. Seizures are the taking of these items by the government for use as evidence in a criminal prosecution (or, in the case of a person, the detention or taking of the person into custody).

In either case, the amendment indicates that government officials are required to apply for and receive a search warrant prior to a search or seizure; this warrant is a legal document, signed by a judge, allowing police to search and/or seize persons or property. Since the 1960s, however, the Supreme Court has issued rulings limiting the warrant requirement in situations where a person can be said to lack a “reasonable expectation of privacy” outside the home.

Police can also search and/or seize people or property without a warrant if the owner or renter consents to the search, if there is a reasonable expectation that evidence may be destroyed or tampered with before a warrant can be issued (i.e., exigent circumstances), or if the items in question are in plain view of government officials. Furthermore, the courts have found that police do not generally need a warrant to search a car’s passenger compartment or to search people entering the United States from another country.

When a warrant is needed, law enforcement officers do not need enough evidence to secure a conviction. Still, they must demonstrate to a judge that there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed or evidence will be found. Probable cause is the legal standard for determining whether a search or seizure is constitutional or whether a crime has been committed; it is a lower threshold than the standard of proof at a criminal trial.

Critics have argued that this requirement is not very meaningful because law enforcement officers are almost always able to get a search warrant when they request one; on the other hand, since we wouldn’t expect the police to waste their time or a judge’s time trying to get search warrants that are unlikely to be granted, perhaps the high rate at which they get them should not be so surprising.

What happens if the police conduct an illegal search or seizure without a warrant and find evidence of a crime? In the 1961 Supreme Court case Mapp v. Ohio, the court decided that evidence obtained without a warrant that didn’t fall under one of the exceptions mentioned above could not be used as evidence in a state criminal trial. This gave rise to the broad application of what is known as the exclusionary rule, which was first established in 1914 on a federal level in Weeks v. United States.

The exclusionary rule doesn’t just apply to evidence found or to items or people seized without a warrant (or falling under an exception noted above); it also applies to any evidence developed or discovered as a result of the illegal search or seizure.

For example, if the police search your home without a warrant, find bank statements showing large cash deposits regularly, and discover you are engaged in some other crime of which they were previously unaware (e.g., blackmail, drugs, or prostitution), not only can they not use the bank statements as evidence of criminal activity—they also can’t prosecute you for the crimes they discovered during the illegal search. This extension of the exclusionary rule is sometimes called the “fruit of the poisonous tree” because just as the metaphorical tree (i.e., the original search or seizure) is poisoned, so is anything that grows out of it.

However, like the requirement for a search warrant, the exclusionary rule does have exceptions. The courts have allowed evidence obtained without the necessary legal procedures to be used in circumstances where police executed warrants they believed were correctly granted but were not (“good faith” exception) and when the evidence would have been found anyway had they followed the law (“inevitable discovery”).

The requirement of probable cause also applies to arrest warrants. A person cannot generally be detained by police or taken into custody without a warrant, although most states allow police to arrest someone suspected of a felony crime without a warrant so long as probable cause exists, and police can arrest people for minor crimes or misdemeanors they have witnessed themselves.” (2022).

Miranda and Arrest

One of the most significant issues with police accountability is knowledge of the job of a police officer. Suppose a person doesn’t understand policing policies, procedures, rules, regulations, and how police operate. In that case, there is going to be a disconnect when the media portrays police in different situations. All too often community members get their knowledge of how the police operate through television shows. Miranda admonition is a classic example. The television show “Law and Order” is notorious for showing the actors playing detectives advising every suspect of their Miranda Rights as they place suspects under arrest. The classic clip shows the hand-cuffs going on, and then as the detectives walk the suspect to their vehicle, they verbalize Miranda from memory. In reality, this could not be further from the truth.

This is not how Miranda is applied. The Miranda decision requires officers to read certain statements when those officers plan on interrogating a suspect. If the suspect is not free to leave and the officer wants to question the suspect, in an attempt for the suspect to make incriminating statements, the suspect must be read Miranda admonishments and must understand the admonishments.

If an officer sees a person break the law, the only time that officer needs to read Miranda prior to interrogating the suspect, is if the officer wants to question the suspect. If the officer sees the crime, there generally is no need to question the suspect about the crime; therefore, Miranda is not required. For instance, if an officer uses a radar gun and sees a vehicle speeding 40 mph in a 25 mph speed zone, the officer does not need to read the driver of the vehicle Miranda, unless that officer wants to interrogate the driver. The officer can write the driver a citation without reading Miranda, and in some states, the officer can arrest the driver for speeding without reading Miranda (in Oregon, speeding is a traffic violation, therefore, drivers cannot be arrested for speeding; this is not true for all states, as in some states, traffic violations are misdemeanors).

With Miranda Rights, the following admonishment must be provided:

1. You have the right to remain silent.
2. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law.
3. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you free of charge.
4. Do you understand these rights? (The arrestee must verbally provide they understand the rights as explained.)

If these rights are not provided to the arrestee, any statements made could be inadmissible in a criminal trial. Officers must also respect these rights. Officers cannot force or coerce statements from the arrestee. If they decline to talk and invoke their right to remain silent, the officer must cease questioning. An arrested person has the right to be informed about the grounds for arrest and about the factual circumstances and legal classification of the crime he or she is suspected of committing (Raber, 2022).

Licenses and Attributions for Levels of Policing and the Role of Police

Open Content, Shared Previously

“Levels of Policing and Roles of Police” is adapted from “6.4 Levels of Policing and Role of Police”, by Tiffany Morey in SOU-CCJ230 Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System by Alison S. Burke, David Carter, Brian Fedorek, Tiffany Morey, Lore Rutz-Burri, and Shanell Sanchez, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Modifications by Megan Gonzalez. Revisions by Roxie Supplee, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, include edits for style, clarity, and writing the “Dangers of Police Work” section.

Figure 6.5. Oregon State Police Troopers is in the Public Domain.

All Rights Reserved Content

Figure 6.6. Sergeant John Lawrence by Officer Down Memorial Page is included with permission.