Should Police Chiefs be elected like County Sheriffs and Constables?

[ergohead]

Originally Posted by Quick Enough

In most urban areas the Police Chief is appointed by the mayor, making it a political appointment. Not always a good idea.

That's how Hitler and Mussilini always did it.

[Lolipopbubbles]

Originally Posted by BentBow

You did revive an old one!

County / Parish have elected Sheriffs, not called Police.

Police are city hired security force.

If a big city is in a county, is it the sheriffs job to police the police?

Hahahaha!

In some States/County there are County Police Chiefs and Municipal Police Chiefs. The Sheriffs are separate from those two. The Sheriff does not police the police but a Mayor can and usually in some areas do. The Governor, I think, can oversee the Mayor(s), and State Police. It depends on the State, County.

Now I think the County Police have to first be eligible to take the Civil Service Exam, be of high enough rank. Of course if who takes the exam has the same score as another Police Officer it then goes to experience and who they are related to to help them get the position/promotion.

Should the Police Chiefs be elected like the Sheriff and Constable? That's a good question. It's expensive to have elections yet at the same time it's expensive and can be dangerous to have them be appointed. Why not take it a vote from the public. Put it on the ballot and let the people decide if they want that position added to the elections. I can see having the Police Chiefs elected rather than taking a test only to be favored if the score is high enough or not anyway. I can see privatizing the County shreiffs too depending on the area (County).

[WIHS2006]

Certain areas (particularly suburban Atlanta, GA, suburban Washington DC in Maryland and northern Virginia, and suburban NYC on Long Island) have both a county police department and a county sheriff's office. In such cases the sheriff's office normally handles the jail, civil process, court security, and limited law enforcement (usually things like traffic stops, and crimes they come across while evicting people or serving papers/warrants) while the county police department handles the 'normal' police work and criminal investigations.

My particular county is one example. The Suffolk County Police Department was created in 1960 because the county legislature was upset that they could not force the elected sheriff to do things that he dident want to do (such as allowing the county legislature to dictate law enforcement practices and to control the sheriff's office budget). The Suffolk County Sheriff's Office continues to run the county jail complexes (we have 2), prisoner transport and detention, civil process, and highway patrol on the Suffolk County portion of the Long Island Expressway. All deputy sheriffs in New York State (including in Nassau, Suffolk, and New York City) are state certified police officers, they receive the same training as all cops would get; they can arrest people, make traffic stops & issue citations, etc - it's just that their primary function is court security, civil process, evictions, and warrant enforcement but if you commit a crime in their presence, fit a description of a known suspect, or act suspicious they will intervene and take action.


If it were up to me I would absorb the county police department into the county sheriff's office (the average Suffolk County deputy sheriff makes about $80,000 a year as opposed the average Suffolk County Police officer making about $120,000 a year). The problem is that we cannot combine 2 different civil service titles without the approval of the state legislature. Not to mention that the county legislature would lose the ability to interfere in law enforcement matters (the county police commissioner is appointed by the county executive and approved by the county legislature). The Police Benevolent Association is also a huge infulence on local politics (there's 2,000 county police officers vs only 300 deputy sheriffs),