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LAW ENFORCEMENT: A DEFINITION
A career in law enforcement offers prospects for challenge and variety found in few other areas of work.
In earlier days, law enforcement agencies faced problems such as political control, low pay, and limited
training. Today, they have become organizations that reflect the social, urban, and industrial complexities
of our society. In viewing this career area, it is more accurate to use the term "law enforcement" than
"police" because responsibility for enforcement now rests with a variety of government agencies. In the
United States, there are some 40,000 separate law enforcement agencies representing municipal, county,
state, and federal governments.
Law enforcement in America is fragmented and specialized primarily due to the basic distrust
Americans have of the concept of a national police force. Regardless of fragmentation, all of these
agencies, as representatives of the population, enforce the law by investigating, arresting, and assisting
in the prosecution of persons violating the law.
In many instances, the large number of enforcement agencies in America means duplication of law
enforcement activities. This often causes jurisdictional disputes among agencies with resulting confusion
and complications. For example, each federal, state, and local law enforcement agency has jurisdiction
in matters of illegal narcotics traffic. If their efforts are not coordinated or are unknown to each other, they
may operate at cross-purposes and reduce the effectiveness of the investigations in progress. Perhaps the
best way to understand our fragmented and decentralized system of law enforcement in the United States
is to examine it by level of government--municipal, county, state, and federal.
At the local level, the two most important examples of law enforcement are municipal and county
police agencies. Many citizens mistakenly believe that the greatest responsibility for policing the United
States rests with the federal government. In fact, law enforcement is primarily a local function. The origins
of law enforcement in America show that crime was treated primarily as a local problem. It follows that
enforcement, for the most part, was practiced locally. Despite the development of criminal activities that
crisscross local, state, and national boundaries, the main sources of crime in America can be found in local
communities. More than 90 percent of all felonies occur in the jurisdictions of local police agencies. In
addition, the vast majority of criminal laws are local ordinances prohibiting offenses ranging from
vandalism to murder. The size of local police agencies in the United States is as varied as the number of
laws they seek to enforce. Some smaller communities function with two or three officers, while large
municipalities such as New York City have forces exceeding 25,000 officers. Marked differences also
exist in the background, training, education, and pay of police officers throughout the country. Despite
these differences, the goals of the police remain the same: the enforcement of criminal laws and the
preservation of peace in the community.
Municipal Police
The entire criminal justice system in the United States starts with the police, and it is the municipal police
officer who is most familiar to the average person. Municipal police departments, in both personnel and
management practices, are generally organized along semimilitary lines. Police officers wear uniforms,
usually blue or brown; are ranked according to a military system such as sergeant, lieutenant, captain,
colonel; and are governed by specific, written rules and regulations. Highly trained police officers are
found in both large and small cities. Of the more than 17,000 cities in the United States, 55 have
populations exceeding a quarter of a million, and these employ about one-third of all police personnel.
American cities present the greatest challenges to law enforcement, and require the highest concentration
of officers.
