Federal agents don’t operate like police. They don’t just write tickets for breaking laws, they make a federal case out of it, and all that implies.
Say inforcing truth in advertising laws. They could then just writing up a ticket for each time something wrong is spotted, summoning the perp in front of a judge to explain himself. Whereas now they have to wait until a few hundred instances are observed, over an number of years, build a case with many lawyers, and file a bunch of paperwork.
The feds have a police force. Or, to be more exact, they have many police forces. There’s the Park Police, Customs, the DEA, the FBI, etc., etc. The Department of Education even has a police force.
If you get arrested by federal police, it’s the same as if it’s by state/local police. They come to your place, put handcuffs on you, take you before a judge, and all that.
What about the United States Marshals Service?
Really, the Feds have police forces up the wazoo. I lived for quite some time in Washington, DC and I remember reading a Post article listing, I think, 17 different law enforcement agencies operating in the District. I can only do a partial list, and it would be great if others can up up with names I miss.
FBI
DEA
Federal Marshall Service
National Park Police
Federal Protective Service
Army military Police
Air Force MPs
Marine MPs
Navy? – IIRC, the navy uses marine cops
Treasury Police
Postal Police
Secret Service
Oh, never mind, I just found a wiki list of about 30 Federal police agencies.
Do we need ANOTHER Federal police force? No, but I could see retasking one of these to do some more useful work.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to merge all the civilian law-enforcement agencies into one? Why the duplication?
Federal law enforcement agents make a federal case out of everything pretty much by definition.
Truth in advertising laws are generally enforced by the FTC under the Federal Trade Comission Act, and penalities are generally civil in nature. Most (but not all) federal crimes are found in Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Those crimes are often investigated and prosecuted in much the same way that state crimes are. By way of example, here’s a recent article from a trial in the federal courthouse I used to clerk in, coincidentally also involving one of my old law school professors:
You don’t RC. The US Navy has the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). They also have Masters-at-Arms who, when assigned ashore, are assigned to base security departments. The US Marine Corps also has the NCIS. In addition, they have Military Police.
These agencies exist separately to guarantee a certain amount of law enforcement attention and investment to certain areas. Otherwise some uber agency might decide that they were wasting a lot of resources on say, the war on drugs, or who knows what?
Not to say that an uber agency is too rational for the system. Remember the to-do around Homeland Security’s Threat list, and its rather bizarre allocation of block grants to local and state law enforcement? IIRC, there were such high-risk targets as a popcorn factory and a petting zoo that led to slashing the grants to DC and New York, the only two cities actually attacked.