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Time for a major reform of the Sheriff's Office as it currently exists in society

The recent occurrences in two adjacent counties has cemented my already strong opposition to the concept and practice of the Office of Sheriff as it currently exists in the United States.

Marcos Lopez, former Sheriff of Osceola County was recently arrested for using his office to run and protect a gambling ring. But he had numerous unrelated scandals as well, such as putting a picture of the body of a dead little girl on social media and making the Brady list for repeated false statements.

Wayne Ivey, current Sheriff of Brevard County essentially issued what amounts to a vile threat of violence against what have been predominantly peaceful protests. But his scandals are numerous, including offering jobs to candidates to get them to drop out of races against Ivey's favored candidates. And he is a proponent of the prevalent but discredited theory of the so called "Constitutionalist" Sheriff, which seeks to place the Sheriff as superior to all other authority including Federal.

But they are only two of many. Of course, there was the infamous Joe Arpaio.

I consider the modern Office of Sheriff, at best, to be an attractive nuisance. An office that might be benevolent under decent leadership, but that can quickly turn ugly when an Arpaio, Ivey or Lopez is elected.

My solution is to take the Sheriff's Office and split them into two separate entities.

Entity #1.

The first entity would have the title of Sheriff, but would be part of the State Judiciary branch. Each county Sheriff would be appointed either by the local court of general jurisdiction or by a State Marshal. The Sheriff would have authority over the county jail and other detention facilities, would provide bailiff services to the courts, would serve civil and criminal process, including warrants for the arrest of fugitives and would have the power of arrest for crimes committed in their presence only. They would not have general law enforcement or investigative functions.

Entity #2.

The second entity would be a county level police department. The Chief of Police would be appointed by the county government and would serve at the pleasure of the county government. It would provide general law enforcement to the county and by contract to municipalities within the county.

Separating these two functions would greatly reduce the power of the individual in charge and appointing them would actually make them more accountable than if they were elected, as in many jurisdictions, it is all but impossible to electorally defeat an incumbent Sheriff. In Maricopa County, it only happened because the county slowly shifted blue during Arpaio's long tenure, enough to finally bring him down. But that is not the case in most counties.

And it is appropriate to separate the service of process and detention of criminals, primarily a judicial branch process, from general law enforcement and investigation, primarily an executive branch process. Sheriff's Offices as they now exist intertwine functions of two separate branches of government.

Another reason is that it eventually opens the door for the consolidation of county and municipal law enforcement. Many areas have small podunk municipal police departments that should be consolidated into county level law enforcement. Separating County Police from the Sheriff's Office would make this process easier.

The problem is that the American Voter does not understand what the job of Sheriff really is.

The Deputies are hired to enforce the law. To police the public. The Sheriff is hired to police the deputies. If the Sheriff isn’t doing that, the public needs to fire him/her and get someone who will.

Obviously we don’t do that. We elect or hire the guy if you prefer who sounds tough. Who is going to focus on getting the criminals.
 
One of many upsides to living in New England is Sheriffs and deputies are just court house security, court pages and court transport.
 
Policing needs to change. Full stop.

  • 73 federal agencies
  • 50 primary state law enforcement agencies
  • 1,733 special jurisdiction agencies
  • 3,063 sheriff's offices
  • 12,501 city, county, tribal, and regional police departments
 
Policing needs to change. Full stop.

  • 73 federal agencies
  • 50 primary state law enforcement agencies
  • 1,733 special jurisdiction agencies
  • 3,063 sheriff's offices
  • 12,501 city, county, tribal, and regional police departments

We could clearly consolidate at the Federal, State and local levels.

At the Federal level, remove the United States Marshal's Service from any involvement in law enforcement or investigation. They should be solely at the disposal of the Federal Courts to enforce the orders of those courts, serve process, provide bailiff services and recover Federal fugitives, as well as protecting Federal Judges.

Consolidate Federal law enforcement to two agencies, the FBI and Immigration and Border Control.

At the State level, there should be a State level bureau to assist local departments and conduct investigations on police shootings and other police misconduct and a State Highway Patrol.

At the local level, I would abolish municipal police departments and consolidate local police into the county level police department. Sheriff's would lose general law enforcement and investigation powers and would serve as officers of the court, similar in function to United States Marshals as defined above.

So there would be approximately 3,100 to 3,200 county level (or county equivalent) police departments. 2 Federal departments, 2 departments in each State, plus 2 departments in the District of Columbia.

That would leave an approximate total of 3, 204 to 3,304 agencies, not counting tribal departments and territorial departments.

There would be a few specialty law enforcement agencies left, such as the IRS, but I would like those to be few and far between.

Sheriff's would not be law enforcement and would not count in the total.
 
The recent occurrences in two adjacent counties has cemented my already strong opposition to the concept and practice of the Office of Sheriff as it currently exists in the United States.

Marcos Lopez, former Sheriff of Osceola County was recently arrested for using his office to run and protect a gambling ring. But he had numerous unrelated scandals as well, such as putting a picture of the body of a dead little girl on social media and making the Brady list for repeated false statements.

Wayne Ivey, current Sheriff of Brevard County essentially issued what amounts to a vile threat of violence against what have been predominantly peaceful protests. But his scandals are numerous, including offering jobs to candidates to get them to drop out of races against Ivey's favored candidates. And he is a proponent of the prevalent but discredited theory of the so called "Constitutionalist" Sheriff, which seeks to place the Sheriff as superior to all other authority including Federal.

But they are only two of many. Of course, there was the infamous Joe Arpaio.

I consider the modern Office of Sheriff, at best, to be an attractive nuisance. An office that might be benevolent under decent leadership, but that can quickly turn ugly when an Arpaio, Ivey or Lopez is elected.

My solution is to take the Sheriff's Office and split them into two separate entities.

Entity #1.

The first entity would have the title of Sheriff, but would be part of the State Judiciary branch. Each county Sheriff would be appointed either by the local court of general jurisdiction or by a State Marshal. The Sheriff would have authority over the county jail and other detention facilities, would provide bailiff services to the courts, would serve civil and criminal process, including warrants for the arrest of fugitives and would have the power of arrest for crimes committed in their presence only. They would not have general law enforcement or investigative functions.

Entity #2.

The second entity would be a county level police department. The Chief of Police would be appointed by the county government and would serve at the pleasure of the county government. It would provide general law enforcement to the county and by contract to municipalities within the county.

Separating these two functions would greatly reduce the power of the individual in charge and appointing them would actually make them more accountable than if they were elected, as in many jurisdictions, it is all but impossible to electorally defeat an incumbent Sheriff. In Maricopa County, it only happened because the county slowly shifted blue during Arpaio's long tenure, enough to finally bring him down. But that is not the case in most counties.

And it is appropriate to separate the service of process and detention of criminals, primarily a judicial branch process, from general law enforcement and investigation, primarily an executive branch process. Sheriff's Offices as they now exist intertwine functions of two separate branches of government.

Another reason is that it eventually opens the door for the consolidation of county and municipal law enforcement. Many areas have small podunk municipal police departments that should be consolidated into county level law enforcement. Separating County Police from the Sheriff's Office would make this process easier.
What is forgotten is that one place trains their cops/deputies different than others. Before anything can done, training for cops/deputies needs to be standardized across the country.
 
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