Law enforcement agency


A law enforcement agency is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement agency is the [|police], but various other forms exist as well, including agencies that focus on specific legal violations or are organized and overseen by certain authorities. They typically have various powers and legal rights to allow them to perform their duties, such as the power of arrest and the use of force.

Jurisdiction

LEAs that have their power restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. Jurisdictions are traditionally restricted to a geographic area and territory. An LEA might be able to apply its powers within a state, within an administrative division, within a division of an administrative division, or across a collection of states typically within an international organization or political union.
Sometimes, the jurisdiction of an LEA is determined by the type of violation committed, the specific laws the agency enforces, the affected parties, or the severity of the offense. For example, in the United States, the Postal Inspection Service primarily investigates crimes affecting or misusing the services of the United States Postal Service, such as mail and wire fraud. If a Postal Inspection Service investigation uncovered tobacco smuggling, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be involved, but the Drug Enforcement Administration would not, as even though they investigate drug smuggling, their jurisdiction does not cover specifically tobacco smuggling. In other cases, an LEA's involvement is determined by whether their involvement is requested. The Australian Federal Police, for instance, has jurisdiction over all of Australia but usually takes on complex, serious matters referred to it by another agency; that other agency will undertake its own investigations of less serious or complex matters by consensus.
LEA jurisdictions for a country and its divisions can be at more than one level. An LEA restricted to a jurisdiction is typically referred to as local police or territorial police. The United States has five basic tiers of law enforcement jurisdiction: federal, state, county, municipality, and special jurisdiction. Only the municipal, county, and state levels are involved in direct policing. In some countries, national or federal police also participate in direct policing, although their focus and responsibilities may vary. In Brazil, there are five federal police forces with national jurisdiction—the Federal Police of Brazil, the Federal Highway Police, the Federal Railroad Police, the Federal Penal Police, and the National Public Security Force. The Highway Police, Railroad Police, and Penal Police are restricted to specific area jurisdictions, the Federal Police performs various police duties across the country and investigates crimes, and the National Public Security Force is a rapid reaction force deployed to assist state authorities on request.
Some levels of jurisdictions may overlap, resulting in the differentiation of duties. As an example for the US tiers, the Chicago Police Department has jurisdiction over Chicago but not necessarily the rest of Cook County. While the Cook County Sheriff's Office has jurisdiction over Cook County, for the most part they patrol unincorporated areas and operate Cook County Jail, leaving municipalities to municipal police departments. The rest of Illinois, primarily its state highways, is under the jurisdiction of the Illinois State Police. Although they typically avoid each other's responsible areas, overlapping jurisdictions can assist each other if necessary, usually in the form of higher-tier agencies assisting lower-tier agencies.

Operational areas

Often, an LEA's jurisdiction will be geographically divided into operational areas for administrative and logistical efficiency reasons. An operational area is often called a command, division, or office. Colloquially, they are known as beats.
While the operational area of a LEA is sometimes referred to as its jurisdiction, the agency typically retains legal authority across all geographic areas in which it operates. However, by policy and mutual agreement, its operations are generally confined to its designated area and do not extend into other operational zones of the agency. For example, since 2019 the frontline or territorial policing of the United Kingdom's Metropolitan Police has been divided into 12 Basic Command Units, each consisting of two, three, or four of the London boroughs, while the New York City Police Department is divided into 77 precincts.
Image:EnglandPoliceNumbered.png|thumb |right |English law enforcement agency territorial divisions.Sometimes, one legal jurisdiction is covered by more than one LEA, which may arise due to administrative and logistical efficiency reasons, policy, or historical reasons. In England and Wales, LEAs called constabularies have jurisdiction over their respective areas of legal coverage, but they do not normally operate out of their areas without formal liaison between them. The primary difference between separate agencies and operational areas within the one legal jurisdiction is the degree of flexibility to move resources between versus within agencies. When multiple LEAs cover the one legal jurisdiction, each agency still typically organizes itself into operations areas. In the United States, within a state's legal jurisdiction, county and city LEAs do not have full legal jurisdictional flexibility throughout the state, and this has led in part to mergers of adjacent police agencies.

International and multinational law enforcement agencies

Although international LEAs and multinational LEAs are both often termed "international" in official documents, differences exist between the two. An international law enforcement agency has jurisdiction and/or operates in multiple countries and across state borders, such as Interpol. A multinational law enforcement agency typically operates in only one country, or one division of a country, but is made up of personnel from several countries, such as the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. International LEAs are typically also multinational, but multinational LEAs are typically not international. Rather than enforcing laws directly, LEAs that operate across a collection of countries tend to facilitate the sharing of information necessary for law enforcement between those countries.

Federal and national law enforcement agencies

When an LEA's jurisdiction is for the whole country, it is usually one of two broad types: federal or national.

Federal

When a country has a federal constitution, the LEA responsible for the entire country is referred to as a federal law enforcement agency. The responsibilities of a federal LEA vary from country to country. Federal LEA responsibilities typically include the countering of fraud against the federation, immigration and border control regarding people and goods, the investigation of currency counterfeiting, the policing of airports and protection of designated national infrastructure, national security, and the protection of the country's head of state and other designated very important persons.
A federal police agency is a federal LEA that also has the typical police responsibilities of social order and public safety, as well as federal law enforcement responsibilities. However, a federal police agency will not usually exercise its powers at a divisional level. Such exercising of powers typically involves specific arrangements between the federal and divisional governing bodies.
Examples of federal law enforcement agencies include the following:
A federated approach to a country's organization does not necessarily indicate how law enforcement agencies are organized within the country. Some countries, such as Austria and Belgium, have a relatively unified approach to law enforcement but still have operationally separate units for federal law enforcement and divisional policing. The United States has a highly fractured approach to law enforcement agencies generally, and this is reflected in American federal law enforcement agencies.
Relationship between federal and federated divisions
In a federation, there will typically be separate LEAs with jurisdictions for each division within the federation. A federal LEA will have primary responsibility for laws that affect the federation as a whole and that have been enacted by the governing body of the federation.
Typically, federal LEAs have relatively narrow police responsibilities; the individual divisions within the federation usually establish their own police agencies to enforce laws within the division. However, in some countries federal agencies have jurisdiction in divisions of the federation. This typically happens when the division does not have its own independent status and is dependent on the federation. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is one such federal agency that also acts as the sole police agency for Canada's three territories: the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.
Federal LEA members may also be given jurisdiction within a federation's division for laws enacted by the division's governing bodies either by the relevant division or by the federation's governing body. For example, the Australian Federal Police is a federal agency and has the legal power to enforce the laws enacted by any Australian state, but it will generally only enforce state law if there is a federal aspect to investigate.File:FBI Police.jpg|thumb|FBI Police cars outside a Federal Bureau of Investigation facility. The FBI Police is responsible for protecting, and has jurisdiction over, facilities owned and operated by the FBI.In federal polities, actions that violate laws in multiple geographical divisions within the federation or are deemed to be serious are escalated to a federal LEA. In other cases, specific crimes deemed to be serious are escalated; for example, in the United States, the FBI investigates all kidnapping cases regardless of whether they involve the crossing of state lines. Some countries provide law enforcement on land and in buildings owned or controlled by the federation by using a federal LEA; for example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is responsible for some aspects of federal property law enforcement.