Police Organization.

[Sgt Lobster]

How are the police organized in your jurisdiction ?


Lobster.

[John from Maryland]

Montgomery County PD is the general law enforcement agency for the county. The Sheriff's Office handles prisoner transport; service of warrants and court orders; court security, and related functions. The Fire Marshal's Office handles EOD and arson/explosives investigations with firefighters who have been sent through a police academy.

Four municipalities have police forces. The county police do not generally patrol or respond in one city (which borders an adjacent county). The other three cities share patrol and investigative responsibilities with MCPD.

A bi-county agency is responsible for both parks and zoning in this an adjacent county. Each county park department has a park police division with its own chief. Uniforms are more or less the same, but each county has different insignia, badges, cruiser markings, firearms, and philosophy. Park Police is responsible for most parks in the county that are not federal, state, or city property.

They are not to be confused with the U.S. Park Police or the Rangers of the National Park Service. NPS has authority for federal parkland in the county. Other uniformed federal agencies include the National Institutes of Health Police, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology Security. There are also DOD and military law enforcement personnel at various defense facilities. Federal Protective Service, Secret Service, and Postal Police officers may also respond to sites in the county.

Maryland State Police are primarily restricted to the interstate highways and commercial vehicle enforcement in this county. Troopers do occasionally make stops off the interstate. State Natural Resources Police officers are responsible for fish and game enforcement. State Park Rangers have law enforcement responsibilities at state parks in the county.

I think that's about it.

[PeteBroccolo]

In Saskatchewan the 3 levels of Government employ the following Agencies for Law Enforcement:

- Federal:
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Customs, Immigration, Controlled Drugs and Substances, Income Tax, Endangered Species and Migratory Bird, national security enforcement);
- Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (Customs and Income Tax enforcement);
- Immigration Canada (Immigration enforcement);
- Canadian Wildlife Service (Endangered Species and Migratory Bird enforcement);
- National Defence (Criminal Code enforcement on Canadian Forces sites and national security enforcement);

- Provincial:
- RCMP (Criminal Code (CC) and Provincial Statute (PS)(traffic, liquor, parks, littering, fishing, hunting) enforcement);
- Municipal Police (CC and PS (limited/nil on fishing and hunting) enforcement;
- Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (note that "Parks" was not included for some reason!) Conservation Officers (PS)(fishing, hunting, parks, liquor, limited traffic) and limited CC enforcement);
- Saskatchewan Highways and Transportation Transport Compliance Branch Traffic Officers (PS (traffic and liquor) and limited CC enforcement);
- Saskatchewan Taxation Revenue Enforcement Officers (PS (fuel and tobacco tax, and limited traffic and liquor enforcement);

- Municipal:
- RCMP (where we are hired under contract);
- Municipal Police - 9 Services, ranging from 1 (a few) to ~ 400 members (2)

[nashynz]

In New Zealand we keep it simple and have one police force for the whole country. Thats about 8000 cops for 4 million citizens.

The biggest city Auckland is broken into three districts. I work in South Auckland which has the highest crime rate and naturally the lowest average economic status.

Emergency jobs are responded to by a central police station called Emergency Response. They consist of two man incident cars and are responsible for all the jobs involving offenders.

There are six local stations who are manned by the detectives, and front line cops who are responsible for all the jobs the ER don't do and the jobs they are supposed to do but get to busy to do.

Plus we have the specialist groups like dog handlers, armed offenders squad, VIP protection, drug squad etc.

Thats the basic setup, oh and just to make things difficult South Auckland is the only place to have an ER system. Everyone else responds to all the jobs from the local stations. ER was (and is hopefully) an experiment. Word on the street is that it was designed to save money as you need less bosses to make it work than the old system.

[JohnKelly]

Australia, like New Zealand also keep it pretty simple in relation to Police Forces.

We have one Police Force for each State and one Federal Police Force, who in addition to Federal or Commonwealth Law Enforcement are responsible for Community Policing to the Australian Capital Territory and Islands off the Australian Coast such as Norfolk Island.

These are our Police Forces,

Queensland Police
New South Wales Police
Victoria Police
Tasmania Police
South Australia Police
Western Australia Police
Northern Territory Police
Australian Federal Police

Just as a matter of interest, the Western Australia Police have the largest Police Jurisdiction in the world.

Australian Police as listed above have more or less the same Command and Rank structure as the British Police.

There are other Specialist Law Enforcement Agencies in Australia, however, they are not, repeat not, authorised to use the word 'Police' and some, repeat some, would only have arrest powers as 'Authorised Officers' in relation to their Department's responsibilities.

Some examples are,

Australian Customs
Australian Protective Services
Australian Security and Intelligence Service
Australian Immigration Department
Conservation, Fisheries and Wildlife.
State Traffic Authorities
Local Council By-Laws Officers

So, there you go, that's Australia.

Cheers,

John Kelly
Australia

[Sgt Lobster]

Whilst as discussed in another thread, there are a lot of what are described as non-geographic forces, things are really fairly straight forwards as far as the public are concerned; if the public dial 999 or the local police station number, then they get the local geographically based police i.e. if you live in Cumbria you get the Cumbria Constabulary, in Lancashire you get the Lancashire Constabulary in Essex the Essex Police etc. Some forces cover more than one county, but there is always only one force with overall responsibility for policing your area. As previously mentioned there are loads of other agencies, but they all have very specific responsibilities, unlike the local street cops who have to respond to pretty much everything, at least initially.



Lobster. :)

[rugbyman]

For our Comms we have 3 Comms Centres, North, Central and South.

South covers the whole of the South Island from Christchurch and on a good day, (I think), we can hear the Aussie cops over our radios.

Central is based in Wellington and covers the central North Island up to Hamilton with North Comms (Auckland)covering the rest. The Comms centres are based in the main police stations and are staffed by sworn and non-sworn staff. South and Central Comms also share with Fire service staff.

Emergency calls by phone - (111), get picked up by the respective Comms centres , they can 'tag' if one centre gets particularly busy, so in effect a person calling 111 in Auckland may be speaking to a communicator in Wellington who can enter a job just the same.

The system then logs the job according to the area and sends it to the nearest Comms centre. The computor system is universal throughout NZ.

Smaller stations have a direct phone line in and can receive and dispatch their own jobs, protocol says that it should really be done by the respective Comms dispatcher but generally they dont mind if we stick our oar in especially with local knowledge.

Or at least I think thats how it works.

Rugbyman

[PeteBroccolo]

Not to start an international war or anything, but you MIGHT be a wee bit off there, John Kelly, over Western Australian Police having the world's biggest jurisdiction.

Although my Force is broken down into Directorates, Regions, Divisions, Districts, Detachments and Units, WAP might not be able to match our juridiction of from the 49th parallel to the North Pole, and the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans.

Mind you, there ARE only a few places in between there that we handle barking dogs or parking tickets - thank God!

Sorry, earlier I forgot to include the Federal Agency - Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. However, now that I have actually spoken their name, it is policy that I now shoot myself, arrange for me to be cremated and my ashes scattered as far and wide as possible!

[Sgt Lobster]

We certainly cannot compete for size in the UK, though the Northern Constabulary in Scotland is bigger than Belgium.

Perhaps Western Australia, is the biggest area wise non-Federal police force ?

Lobster.

[JohnKelly]

Pete - My information was based on what I read on their Website http://www.police.wa.gov.au

"The Western Australia Police is responsible for policing the largest single police jurisdiction in the world, an area covering 2.5 million square kilometres.

Its 6,209 employees includes 4,869 Sworn Officers.............."

P/S - I see that your Commissioner is coming Down Under for a Crime Conference - its appears to be made up of Senior Command Officers from Commonwealth Countries.

Why don't you ask him if you can come? ;)

Cheers,

JohnKelly
Australia

[PeteBroccolo]

Originally posted by JohnKelly
Pete - My information was based on what I read on their Website http://www.police.wa.gov.au

"The Western Australia Police is responsible for policing the largest single police jurisdiction in the world, an area covering 2.5 million square kilometres.

Its 6,209 employees includes 4,869 Sworn Officers.............."

P/S - I see that your Commissioner is coming Down Under for a Crime Conference - its appears to be made up of Senior Command Officers from Commonwealth Countries.

Why don't you ask him if you can come? ;)

Cheers,

JohnKelly
Australia
I have a sore side, and still brushing away the tears, from laughing at your last line! Although, I did sit next to him at a conference 2 years ago and thought he was ok. When he gets there, you'll recognize him - red tunic, tall brown boots, and the shortest guy in the food line!

Let's just say the WAP and RCMP are both a LITTLE spread out!