County Sheriff just called ...

… but I couldn’t get to the phone in time. The number came up on the Caller ID record. I called back, but got an automated phone tree.

This made me realize how totally ignorant I am of local civics. What is a Sheriff’s field of responsibility–esp. vs. local and state police? What sort of things might he be calling me about? (I’m pretty sure I’m not about to be evicted, so that’s out.)

It depends on the locality.

Here in VA, the Sheriff is an elected office and is responsible for law enforcement in localities without a police department, as well as providing service of warrants, security for courts, and jail administration. In localities that have a police department (which is headed by the Chief of Police, who is not elected bur rather serves at the pleasure of the administrative head of the government), that body provides law enforcement and the Sheriff provides all the other services.

I’d brace for bad news.
Perhaps a relative…? :frowning:

Hmm. I just called again and spoke to their dispatcher, who knew nothing about any calls to me. He thought it may just have been a wrong number.

But I have VOIP, so my area code is not the local area code for the county, which seems suspicious for a wrong number.

Oy.

[hijack]In the BCP age (before cell phones), t’was a sheriff’s deputy that tracked down my vacationing family at a Denny’s-like restaurant and told us that we needed to call a family member ASAP. How they found us I’ll never know. They had a description of our van and they knew they were looking for two adults with two kids. A deputy walked straight up to my dad and asked, “Are you [dad’s name]?” My dad was obviously a bit surprised. As it turns out, my grandfather had passed away unexpectedly just hours before. Short of making the long drive themselves to try to find us, there’s no other way my family members could have reached us.[/hijack]

Is the sheriff an elected position in your county? With the upcoming election, the incumbent could be campaigning.

It could be anything. I doubt he would campaign from his business phone, but it could even be something like you were listed as a reference for somebody and he’s checking up on it. Or you have an old parking ticket he wants to talk about. Most likely- somebody dialed a wrong number.

If he was, it’s probably illegal to use public facilities (such as the sheriff’s office phone line) to do it.

Probably illegal in most U.S. jurisdictions, but certainly not unheard-of. Happened here in CT all the time until the sheriffs were eliminated. In fact, seeing as how the number back-tracked to “an automated phone tree” makes this seem like the most likely explanation. Also, the caller ID might list a number for “Sheriff Joe Johnston”, but the number might be registered to his campaign headquarters, which probably would be legal.

As plnnr says, it depends on the locality. In my county, and most others in this state, we have city police , county police, county sheriff, and state police. Their responsibilities break down as follows:

City police - patrol and respond within the incorporated city limits. Administrate and staff the city jail, if any. Provide security and bailiffs for city court.
County Police - patrol and respond in unincorporated parts of the county and supply, by contract and for a fee, police services to cities that are too small for, or choose not to have, their own police force.
County Sheriff - administrate and staff the county jail, serve warrants and official notices (evictions, etc), provide security and bailiffs for the county courthouse.
State Police - patrol and respond statewide.

Some counties combine the functions of county police and county sheriff into one department which is usually known as the Sheriff’s Dept.

I’m confused. If you got back to a phone tree and not the Sheriff’s Department, how did you know that it was the Sheriff’s office that called? (My area only displays a number, not an associated name, so I am unsure how accurate the name displays might be.)

If the caller identified himself/herself on voice mail or answering machine as calling from the Sheriff’s Department, but the number did not go back to the department, I would tend to think it was some fundraiser calling for a “policeman’s benefit” organization (either working for the Sheriff or running a scam).

Last time I got called by the Sheriff, I’d forgotten to show up for jury duty.

My phone displays the name of the caller, too (“X COUNTY SHERIFF” in this case).

Still don’t know why they called, but no one I know is dead, luckily.

In Hawaii, the Sheriff’s Dept is in charge of the city jail, the coroner’s office, and process serving.

Here, he could have been just shilling for the charity of the day. (United Way, Special Olympics, etc.)

Well, the last time I got a call from the county sheriff, it was 3:00 in the morning and snowing, and he was calling to tell me that my bull had gotten out and was running up and down the highway, but that’s another story…

Simply, a sheriff (and sheriff’s department, sheriff’s deputies, and sheriff police officers) are the law enforcing branch of your county (at least, in the USA).

If your county has a county court and prison, then sheriffs serve the court by issuing summons, providing security and bailiff services, and running the prison.

If your municipality doesn’t have (or want) its own police force, then either your state troopers or county sheriffs (or both) will fill in (by fee or by law… depends on your state laws).

Usually, sheriffs are much more important for rural counties that don’t have municipalities that can front their own city police force.

For those in high population centers, you’ll only run into the sheriffs if you need to go to county court.

Peace.

In most municipalities, the police have surplanted sheriffs. In Hawaii, technically, the Sheriff’s dept is the police dept. Sheriff’s and their deputies perform lesser jobs such as process serving, control of county jails, etc.

The Sheriff’s deputies are the ones who come drag your ass to court if you skip out on jury duty. (Here they definately will do it, too. And if you don’t show up once selected for a jury, I hope you have a real deep hole to hide in.) Could you have gotten a jury duty notice you forgot about, or possibly it got lost in the mail?

Very unlikely. I only moved to this county in May.