the way police works in the United States wait what's that we're getting pulled over in the middle of a video you've got to be kidding me I can't really see the car is it a State Trooper maybe it's a county sheriff wait could it be a federal agent I know we've made some videos on the FBI wait I got it that gives us an excellent idea why are there so many different police departments driver pull over now everyone's familiar with the police no matter where you are or where you've been you've likely seen some sort of police presence but police is a catchall term here as there are various levels of law enforcement throughout the United States they can range from federal state county City Town you name it but what's the point why are there so many different types of police what do they do differently we're here to explain all of that for you we'll be giving you a breakdown of federal state and local police we'll be grouping together County city and Town Police as local police for Simplicity sake if you have no clue what any of these are let's give you some examples for federal law enforcement there's agencies like the FBI DEA US Marshals border patrol Secret Service and the ATF for State there's agencies like the California Texas and Florida Highway patrols New York State Police Alaska State Troopers and the Kentucky State Police you can find these in 49 states fun fact Hawaii is the only state without a Statewide police force and lastly for the local police some examples are the nyp PD lap PD and Chicago PD and then the Los Angeles sheriff's Las Vegas Metropolitan and Broward County police departments this is barely scratching the surface there are thousands and thousands more sorry M cops you didn't make the cut this time now that you're familiar with some of these departments let's kick things off with a fun example on how jurisdiction works for you cops and lawyers out there don't fret this is going to be a simple explanation of jurisdiction you just robbed a bank in the little town of nowhere Kentucky and various types of police are hot on your tail you must have taken a lot of money you just made it out of the town now the town cops have to back off now you just pass through nausea City and the city cops have to back off then you make it out of tonas County woo that was close the County police back off now you got to make it out of Kentucky which you successfully do luck is definitely on your side the Kentucky State Police back off uh-oh now you have the feds on your Trail because you cross state lines you're going to have to make a break for it to Canada or Mexico if you want a shot at your freedom you're now on the FBI's most wanted list congratulations now while that was fun to show you it doesn't work that simply this isn't Grand Theft Auto where you can hide in a bush and the cops forget about you 30 seconds later likely if you robbed the bank an APB would be put out on your location and the town or city county and even State Police would get involved almost immediately on top of that if you cross state lines you've now involved the federal government see how quickly this can stack against you and it's not like the police would just St stop pursuing you because you went outside their jurisdiction once an officer sees you commit a violation within their jurisdiction the jurisdiction becomes irrelevant they can chase you as far as necessary something called Fresh Pursuit a local cop may be limited by his Department's own policy on how far he can chase you but for all intents and purposes it doesn't matter don't think that the town cops will see a sign for the next town and just give up with that out of the way before we can get into their similarities and differences we must start by explaining the main purpose of each of these three levels of law enforcement let's start off with the big guns the federal Police federal police are usually referred to as agents not police the feds enforce the federal law of the United States the feds are overseen by the Department of Justice or Department of Homeland Security as you probably figured federal law enforcement is the biggest entity out of the three levels we will be discussing federal law enforcement comes in several different forms with 65 federal agencies and 27 offices of Inspector General that employ full-time Personnel authorized to make arrests and carry firearms with a body of that size they also get the most funding the doj and dhs's budget combined for fiscal year 2022 is around $16.1 billion now compare that to the largest state agency's budget the California Highway Patrol which is around 2.9 billion that's a huge difference federal agencies enforce federal law not state law an example of this is with the legalization of marijuana while it may be legal in certain States a federal agent can still arrest you for the possession of marijuana because it is not legal under federal law so you can be following the law in your state but still be breaking the law to the federal government of the United States now on to State [Music] Police while we're using the term State Police in reality only 23 States call their departments by that name some states use terms like Highway Patrol State Highway Patrol States Patrol and state troopers despite the different names the functions of these agencies are usually the same and to get things a little more complicated for you Alaska and Arkansas are the only states with both a highway patrol and State Police regardless of the title State Police all have one thing in common they enforce their respective States law the Vermont police aren't interested in enforcing the law over Nebraska and vice versa for example you're not going to see a South Carolina Highway Patrol officer traveling to Colorado to arrest someone for smoking marijuana in Colorado despite that being in South Carolina they simply don't have the jurisdiction to enforce that State Police typically deal with patrolling highways and dealing with traffic however they respond and deal with all sorts of scenarios and crimes especially in rural areas where there isn't much local police patrolling this is especially the case in Alaska where the Alaska State Police can be the only police for hundreds even thousands of square miles Alaska doesn't have any counties it has Burrows and to leave you with a fun fact before we move on to local police State Police can trace its rotes all the way back to the Texas Rangers which were the first Statewide police force in the United States and now on to the local police to Remind You by local we mean County city or town County police are typically referred to as Sheriff's departments City police are typically called Municipal Police and Town police are the smallest of the bunch usually in the suburbs of major cities or towns that can afford to have its own Police Department each of these departments enforce the laws of the United States their respective state laws and their respective ordinances such as count County city and town laws while we're mentioning local police not every locality has its own Police Department there are entire counties and areas that don't have their own police force if a county doesn't have a police force the state police steps in if a town doesn't have a police force the county or State Police can step in so wherever there are gaps the state police and County police if applicable fill those gaps just because local police departments have a smaller jurisdiction by no means implicates its strength or size the NYPD which can only enforce the laws within New York City has a size of over 35,000 sworn officers that's bigger than several Count's entire militaries it all really depends on the size and budget of the city town or County for example LAPD has its own specialized squat team but don't forget the city of La has a population of nearly 4 million people you're most likely not going to see a town of 50 people having the same level of SWAT team as the LAPD because one there's no need and two there wouldn't be enough funding from 5010 taxpayers to have a SWAT team to that degree a small rural town in the middle of nowhere that has one police officer isn't going to have that officer trained in every aspect of SWAT narcotics detective work explosives and forensics that cop will fit the needs of their Community now while we are only discussing County city and Town Police there are in fact several other forms of local police that we won't get into for the sake of this video such as school campus and Transit Police but just know that they do exist and no Mall Cops you still haven't made to cut now that we've given you a broad-strokes breakdown of federal state and local police let's go over some of their key similarities and differences make no mistake while there's several different levels of law enforcement they all do the same thing enforce the laws within the United States to maintain Law and Order while a town cop might not have the federal jurisdiction that a federal agent has if you break a federal law on their Town more likely than not they can enforce it however they'll be more concerned with violations of state law federal law enforcement agencies typically have their own Specialties to tackle different Realms of crime like the DEA for drugs and ATF for guns whereas the state police department will have departments within that agency to combat those sorts of crimes keep in mind that there's an overlap the FBI makes arrest for guns and other crimes outside of its specialty just as much as the DEA can make an arrest not having to do with drugs all levels of law enforcement have some sort of SWAT component whether that's the hostage Rescue Team for the FBI sort for the New York State Police or your local sheriff us office SWAT team there are specialty units designed to respond to high-risk scenarios at virtually every level of law enforcement which brings us to our next Point despite their differences there are plenty of opportunities and instances where all levels of police work together you can find Town cops County cops and state cops embedded in a federal task force like the jtf for example it can go further State cops from different states may work together city cops from different cities can work together and the same goes with County cops and town cops however the despite the cohesiveness there are Degrees of Separation yes County and city cops might work together but you won't see a County cop patrolling the city all willy-nilly typically they will leave enforcement in the city to the city cops and only assist under certain circumstances cops will typically Patrol in their designated areas there's also no common standard for entering law enforcement across the board while each department will have a set of minimum requirements for what they teach in theirm respective to their location some departments might only require a high school diploma whereas others might require a 2-year college degree when you start moving into the federal level they start looking at four-year degrees for entry there are also age restrictions too and it gets much more detailed than that in addition depending on your area of focus the training you receive will vary for example Parks police will receive more training having to do with the geographical challenges of parks than a city cop will but both will be trained to a standard for firearms they'll all be peace officers capable of enforcing the law just with different expertise and Specialties while One Police Academy may be 3 months long another will be 6 months long at the end of the day they're still training to do what needs to be done in the world of law enforcement to sum this up at the federal level the standards of procedure are more uniform and predictable compared to State and local departments you know what you're getting and what to expect to a certain extent it gets a bit tricky the more loal you get a County Law Enforcement Agency in California isn't going to be identical to one in Massachusetts there are nuances across every Police Department bottom line the more local you look the more differences you'll find mind there's no one siiz fits-all the whole point of this video was to give you a basic understanding of how each of these three levels of law enforcement work if you would like to learn more about law enforcement such as the oldest federal law enforcement agency the US Marshals you should go check out Mike her's captivating book on the US Marshals he gives an exclusive and fascinating behind the-scenes look at the most storied law enforcement agency in America and you can get this audio book completely free today thanks to our sponsor for this video audible if you want to check this book out go to audibletrial.com/preneurcast federal state or local police audible's definitely the right move for you again if you go to audibletrial.com/preneurcast And subscribe to our Channel 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