County police , often called county sheriffs in the United States , are police forces existing primarily in the United States that possess primary jurisdiction over an entire county . England and Wales , two constituent countries of the United Kingdom , are policed by territorial police forces largely formed on a county basis. Historically, Northern Ireland and Scotland , the other two constituent countries of the UK, have had county police, although both countries now have unified national police services.
4-572: Until the end of 2014, all of the 21 counties of Sweden had its own County Police Department . In 2015, Sweden merged all local police departments into a single police agency , dividing the country into seven police regions instead. Territorial police forces that have a presence at a regional and county level in England and Wales are: In the United States, the powers, duties, and even existence of county police forces vary widely depending on
8-524: The state , and even on the particular county ( parish in Louisiana ) within a state. County police forces as autonomous entities are relatively rare and tend to exist only in metropolitan counties. Many states also have a county sheriff's office , which is usually formed on a county basis and traditionally carries out duties related to the functioning of the courts and legal system, such as service of process , executing legal writs , and protection for
12-423: The local courthouse and its judges . Many state constitutions mandate that the position of sheriff be created, which leads many states to also give sheriffs the duties of a county police to avoid having overlapping departments with similar duties, leaving the sheriff as the exclusive law enforcement agency for a county. Some counties that previously had both a county police force and a sheriff's office have merged
16-575: The two, leaving the sheriff in command of the unified force, as the sheriff derives his power directly from the constitution; the most prominent example of such a merger is the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department which is actually led by the county sheriff despite its name. County police tend to fall into three broad categories: Note: County detectives , who are maintained in the northeastern states by county attorneys ' offices, fall within this category. In
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