A sheriff is generally, but not always the highest ranking law enforcer of a county in the United States. In most cases, a sheriff is popularly elected by the public. In some states of US, the sheriff is officially known by the name “High Sheriff”, though the title is rarely used.
In America it is a unique tradition to politically elect someone to serve as a police head. A sworn police officer working under a sheriff is known as a “sheriff’s deputy” or “sheriff’s officer” or something like that and can perform the duties of his boss. The law enforcement officers in some states are often referred to as “county mounties” for the mountie-style hats they wear. These officers may be divided further into “special duties” and “general duties”. In some counties, the sheriff is tasked with the recovery of dead people in which case they are known as “sheriff-coroner”. In some areas, the principal deputy of the sheriff is the warden of the local correctional facility or county jail.
In some states of the US, the sheriff may have other duties like tax collection and may be known by other titles like county treasurer or tax collector. He may also be in charge of the county civil defense, rescue service, emergency disaster service or emergency management.
The relationship between police departments and the sheriff varies widely from one state to another and even in some states, from county to county. The sheriff’s duties have been reduced in the northeastern USA. This is due to the advent of state-level agencies of law enforcement, particularly the county police and state police. For example, in Vermont, the sheriff is mainly a county court officer who is tasked with the operation of the county jail and serving of papers in foreclosures and lawsuits.
In other municipalities, by contrast, the office of the sheriff can be merged with all or most of cit-level police departments in a county to produce a metropolitan or city-county police force whose duty is to enforce the law within the county. In such cases, sheriff’s job is served simultaneously as chief of the consolidated police department and in his own job. Examples include the Miami-Dade Police Department and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department.
Offices of sheriffs may coexist with some county level agencies for law enforcement like the county police, county detectives and county park police.
Since 1871, cities in Virginia have absolutely independent jurisdictions that are separate from any county. In the same cities, the sheriff of the city’s county is in charge of jails, security in the courtroom and serves every civil process like evictions or subpoenas. However, in some counties which have made independent county police departments, the sheriff’s office shares duties of law enforcement.
The Sheriff of New York City is an appointee of the mayor and is in charge of 5 county boroughs of New York City. He is also in charge of the City’s Finance Department. There are some states in US that don’t have sheriffs like Connecticut. Here the county government has been done away with, hence the local police and the state is in charge of enforcing the law.
