You are correct that there is no government at the county level in Connecticut. However, if anything, this is because there is a very strong tendency towards more local government, not less.
Local government in Connecticut is entirely at the municipal level. The 169 towns and cities (as a whole) have jurisdiction over every square inch of the state. The police forces of some of the less populated towns, however, are supplemented by the Connecticut State Police, who operate out of various “Troops” distributed throughout the state.
Hi folks. This is my first posting; I've been a reader for about a year and actually signed up just to reply to this message.
In my experience, **Freido**, the Federal agencies operate in precisely the opposite fashion. The FBI are viewed by many in law enforcement as white-collar paper-pushers. I've had quite a bit of experience working with DEA, Customs, ATF, and several state and local law enforcement agencies (I work as a contractor in a Federal Law Enforcement Agency's field offices). The often-repeated observation lately with regard to the Feebs is "Who was the last bad guy they locked up? Martha Stewart? For perjury? She got 6 months!"
DEA folks often joke about the differences in their training (they share training facilities in Quantico, VA with the FBI). A recent graduate was telling me how amazed he was when his class showed up at Hogan's Alley for raid training and watched the FBI class before them pull up in their cars and demand the "suspect" come out of the house, all the while in business dress. The DEA trainees were standing on the sidelines in tactical gear armed to the teeth waiting to kick down doors and spray the place with Simunition. They also frequently comment on the frequency with which the FBI requests "assistance" in making arrests.
It's also frequently noted by the blue-collar LEOs that FBI S/As don't do their own surveillances, generally, and very few of them do undercover work (they have to go to an "undercover school" for several months, whereas most guys learn the basics at academy and then perfect their skills on the streets under the tutelage of more senior S/As or cops).
Now it could be that these guys just resent the FBI (they *do* take care of their guys and gals better than most), but given the extent of the resentment among nearly all of the folks I've encountered, I'd wager it's at least mostly accurate.
Now, I’m curious. My opinions are essentially a built upon the opinions of others, so I may be off base. However, a few of the guys I’ve discussed this with have actually worked with the FBI, and left because they wanted to “work for a living,” as one of them often says. Some refer to the Feebs as “Famous But Incompetent” or F*cking Ballbreaking Imbeciles."
I can’t help but notice that we’re in the same town. . . I wonder what gives?
As I said before, one of the big criticisms of the FBI boys was that they have Surveillance Specialists who do their surveillances for them (I think they’re the only agency with that job classification, but I could be wrong; I know none of the Feds I work with has those). Perhaps its just that the line of work that the guys I work with involves a lot of street work.
What exactly do the folks you work (or worked) with say to the contrary?
I work for a state law enforcement agency, and pretty frequently the people we supervise are under investigation/arrested by other agencies- state, Federal and local. I’ve had dealings with ATF, DEA, Immigration, Customs, the US Park Police, the Postal Police and even the Secret Service. But never the FBI. If they are handling the majority of Federal crime, either Federal crime has a very restricted definition, the technical support provided to other agencies is considered “handling” or NYC (as usual) is very different from the rest of the country
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the FBI, and the CIA are all trying to prove that they are the best at apprehending criminals. The President decides to give them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it.
The CIA goes in. They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude that rabbits do not exist.
The FBI goes in. After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and they make no apologies. The rabbit had it coming.
The LAPD goes in. They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: “Okay! Okay! I’m a rabbit! I’m a rabbit!”
Actually, I think American law enforcement is more complicated than the discussion so far has revealed. Besides the fact that there are law enforcement agencies at various levels (federal, state, and local), the functions of law enforcement are divided up in different ways. The most common types of law enforcement bodies are police, prosecutors, grand juries, juries, and the judiciary and they work with varying degrees of independence from each other.
The judiciary and juries are the most independent from the others. They have limited roles in the law enforcement process – they decide questions of law and fact only when such questions are brought before them. Generally, they do not independently seek out information.
Police agencies act pretty much independently, but aside from laying an initial charge against a suspect, they don’t have the authority to get that charge into court. That’s the role of the prosecutor
Grand juries are generally seen as the “tool of the prosecutor.” The prosecutor has complete control over what information a grand jury sees and he is not subject to the normal rules of evidence (such as the hearsay rule). The U.S. Constitution requires the use of grand juries to bring criminal indictments against defendants. Where grand jury indictments are not required (generally at the state level), a prosecutor can bring a charge himself (through a device that is sometimes called a “bill of information”), but many prosecutors choose to obtain grand jury indictments even when they are not strictly required.
At the federal level, the country is divided into about 90 or so districts. Each district is assigned a U.S. district court (with varying numbers of district court judges) and one U.S. attorney (the state equivalent is the county prosecutor or district attorney). The U.S. attorney has the power to bring federal charges – so the F.B.I., Secret Service, and other federal police agencies can’t prosecute you on their own. If a district has a large enough population, there might be satellite locations for the U.S. district court (divisions) and corresponding assistant U.S. attorneys.
U.S. attorneys and U.S. district court judges are appointed offices, but the corresponding offices at the state level are usually elected.
To confuse things even further, I’ve noticed that New York State denominates their court of first jurisdiction for felonies “Supreme Court”, and what other states call a “Supreme Court” is called the “Supreme Court Of Appeal”. Watching Law and Order on TV, it took me a couple of episodes to realize that they were not talking about appeal cases.
In addition, in the event of a Federal death sentence, the convict will be transferred to a state facility, in a state that allows the death penalty, and the execution will eventually take place there. At least it worked that way a few years ago.
Actually, the top court in the Empire State is simply called the New York Court of Appeals.
Federal prisoners sentenced to death are now held on a Federal death row. Timothy McVeigh was, for instance, before his execution at the Federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., IIRC.
