Why are Sheriffs So Much More Active in the South? (schools, live)
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Location: Just East of the Southern Portion of the Western Part of PA
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Perhaps it is just me, but why does it seem like sheriffs are so much more active in the south then in the north?
Up north, the sheriff seems to be just another elected official that takes care of paperwork, transportation of prisoners, gun registration, ect. They rarely pull anyone over or make arrests. Seems like more of an office job than an active law enforcement position.
Everytime I am down south, it seems like I see the sheriff's car driving around, pulling people over, making arrests, ect. It is also common to have saved parking spots for sheriff's in the south at malls and other places of business.
Why do they seem so much more active in the south? Is it just me?
Simple: Sheriffs' jurisdiction usually includes a County, where as a municipal department just covers a town or city.
In the North, There are County level police departments ( usually call the Sheriff ) but they mostly administer the less populated areas of the County.
In the South, usually, the Sheriffs Department are the ones who are responsible for protecting the law. This has to do with the fact that a lot of Counties in the South, are too small in population for individual towns to have their own police force. Or, towns in in a County may feel that it would be better off to share services such as a hospital, schools, or the police.
Location: Just East of the Southern Portion of the Western Part of PA
1,272 posts, read 3,706,370 times
Reputation: 1511
Ok but I grew up in a PA county with a very small population and we had one county sheriff. He acted as the other sheriffs up north as described above?
Well, it depends. It isn't as universial as what I posted before, but for the most part, Sheiffs are usually name for the County level police force. Most Counties if not all have one main person call a "Sheiff" and he or she acts a the cheif of the department. Usually, this person is elected to this position. As you had stated, you grew up in a County that has a small population. This can explain why the Sheiff department is the main police force.
I have noticed the opposite. When I lived in NH, the NH and MA police were very good at pulling people over for speeding and such (NH was actually quite known for catching criminals on their way up to Canada). Here in GA, I notice a lack of police on the highways and interstates (though some states such as Florida are better).
In Maine where I lived for a trime, you never saw them with anybody pulled over, but the State troopers do a fantastic job everywhere that I have seen.
I think it just depends on the State, but more importantly, the individual Counties and the way they are set up/ Some are busy, some are not.
1. In the North, the state police are usually very strong full service agencies that do everything. In the South, it's usually a highway patrol that just does traffic enforcement. Therefore, the sheriff in the South handles calls that would be handled by state police in the North.
2. A lot more places in the county are incorporated in the North, while there are huge swaths of unincorporated areas in the South, many of them having large populations. For example:
- Hillsborough County, FL: population of 1.2 million but only 3 incorporated cities that total 430,000. This means that only about 1/3 of the county lives in cities, and the other 2/3 is serviced by the sheriff since the highway patrol does not handle calls other than traffic.
- Cuyahoga County, OH: has a population of 1.3 million but has around 60 incorporated towns,cities and villages..... a lot more police forces and a lot less need for the sheriff.... plus the state police there aren't as strictly restricted to traffic enforcement as the FHP is...
Plus in Florida we have a massive politcial interest group called the Florida Sheriff's Association that ensures that the state police remain restricted to traffic and that the sheriff is always superior to the local police....
In south Ga, (where I lived for about 40 years) the Sheriffs dept was the dept that served warrrants, civil papers, etc. I also think the Sheriffs dept was in charge of the county jails? They would also issue citations like the police force when needed. Also they responded to a lot of disturbance calls. I am sure they did most of the same thing as the police force on occasion. Just my 2 cents.
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