I’m currently reading A Maidens Grave by Jefferey Deaver.
Much reference is made in the book to: Town Marshalls, US Marshalls, FBI,CIA, State Troopers,County Sherriff etc. etc.
What is the pecking order of these different depts., does one have jurisdiction over another and if so who is the head honcho/s?
Also, is it true that if a criminal commits a crime in, say, Rhode Island and then flees across the state line into Connecticut, the police from RI cannot continue the pursuit into C/cut
Unca Cecil addressed this issue in this column: Who’s the Boss: City Cops, State Cops or the Feds?
Shoot, I wish someone would do this for the UK. I read Elizabeth George, et al, and I don’t understand the ranks there. What is a DCI, and where are they in the pecking order? etc.
Detective Chief Inspector.
No idea where they would rank.
Highest ranking cop in the UK is the Chief Constable.
After him come a whole bunch of flatfeet, ending up with plod on the beat
Wiki to the rescue - Police ranks of the United Kingdom
Even novelists and screenwriters based in the U.S. get it wrong as often as not. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read about the “town sheriff” being fired by the town council. A sheriff is an elected county office, not an appointed town office.
Here’s a pretty good overview: Law enforcement in the United States - Wikipedia
One thing to keep in mind is that there are multiple overlapping layers of jurisdiction in the U.S. Federal law-enforcement officers enforce federal laws only. These include securities fraud, illegal immigration, and murder committed on federal land (like a national park). Law-enforcement officers who derive their power ultimately from the states (state police, local police, and county sheriff’s offices) enforce only state laws. These include most ordinary crimes like theft, burglary, murder, and rape. Some criminal activities (weapons violations, drug crimes, etc) may be covered under both state and federal statutes.
The states are sovereign, at least in theory, so generally federal lawmen can’t simply order around state and local lawmen and expect to be obeyed. A federal court, however, can issue orders that the states and state officials are obligated to obey.
To add to the confusion, some Indian reservations have their own laws, courts, and law-enforcement officers, as depicted in Tony Hillerman’s novels. Whether a crime committed on an Indian reservation is a matter of federal, state, or Indian jurisdiction depends on the type of crime, and the Indian or non-Indian status of the victim (if any) and of the suspect.
Very helpful. I didn’t see DCI or anything but this cleared that up:
In both The Fugitive and US Marshalls Tommy Lee Jones seems to outrank all the rest of the cops.
Do I take it that a US Marshall is pretty close to the top of the tree so far as authority goes?
At that point you’re looking at the difference between local/state police and the US Marshalls which are federal. Once the Feds take jurisdiction they generally trump local/state cops, but only if they have reason to take over the investigation. A federal marshall can’t take over a burglary investigation unless it somehow falls under a federal offense.
He was outranking everyone only because it was a criminal who escaped US Marshall custody. Basically, it was his mess and it was his responsibility to deal with, so he made all the calls. Everyone else was just there to assist him. They were bound to assist by the desire to catch the criminal and their professional ethics. Tommy Lee had no actual authority over the local cops.
But if you want to get something done efficienctly, someone has to be in charge. That person is usually whoever the case belongs to.
Federal guys , (Marshalls, IRS, FBI, DEA, etc) often go along with local guys on raids and assist with other such operations. Especially bank robberies (FBI) and drug busts (DEA). But they are there to assist and take their orders from the local guys. Despite what you see in movies, though the FBI is notified of bank robberies, the almost always just let the local guys do all the leg work and just process their reports when it’s complete. They dont get in the way and start doing that Hollywood “jurisdiction dance”.
Basically, whoever the case belongs to that is the person in charge. Everyone else is there to take orders because they want in on the action!
In this link Cecil says that cops from Illinois can’t pursue a perp 
acrossa state line.
What about the feds, can they?
Love that word…feds:p:p
Yes, the Federal law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction throughout the US. They are often called in specifically when crimes cross borders - crimes often fall under federal jurisdiction when they cross state lines.
The only law enforcement officials that outrank me are those of higher rank in my department. Beyond that it is a matter of jurisdiction and inter-service cooperation. Any of the officers in that circumstance could tell Marshall Jones to fuck off without reprecussion. But it was his jurisdiction and they were there to assist him.
One extremely common mistake in fiction of all genres is depicting the CIA as some kind of law enforcement agency. They are strictly an intelligence agency: their job is to spy on people in other countries. They’re forbidden by law from conducting operations inside the US, though every once in a while they seem to get into trouble for doing so, anyway.
Among the FBI’s other jobs is catching foreign spies in the US (since espionage is a federal crime.) Legislation after 9/11 made it easier (theoretically) for the CIA to share information with the FBI on domestic matters.
Not always. (.pdf) Well, except for the county vs. town part.
Lots of states also have a provision for the appointment of an interim sheriff in the event that the incumbent dies in office/resigns/whatever.
There can sometimes be a bewildering array of law enforcement in an area. Here in Madison I have seen:
State Police
City of Madison Police
Dane County Sheriff’s Dept.
Capitol Police (Madison is the state Capitol)
US Marshalls (federal court house here)
Homeland Security Police (don’t know why they’re here)
Veterans affairs police (VA hospital)
Plus the police forces of neighboring suburbs/townships:
Town of Madison
Town of middleton
Town of fitchburg
Town of Verona
An awful lot of cops, eh? I just try to avoid em all myself…
Each state and locality organizes its law enforcement in different ways, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
There are federal authorities and there are state authorities. Federal authorities have jurisdiction only in circumstances when the federal government has jurisdiction.
At the state level, there are, generally speaking, two kinds of law enforcement authorities.
a. One is a constitutional authority. Most sheriffs, for example, are created by the state constitution and they are elected to their offices. Their jurisdiction is defined by the state constitution and they can be removed only through constitutional procedures.
b. Another is a civil service authority. Most police departments are merely civil departments of municipal governments. Their office holders are appointed through a civil service system – a lot of city police chiefs are chosen based on written exam scores – and they may be removed in the same way that any municipal employee is removed.
Generally speaking, there isn’t really a clear “ranking” system. The only things for sure are that the U.S. attorney general is the top federal law enforcement official and the state attorneys general are the top state law enforcement officials. Even stating this, I’m not sure what the U.S. attorney general’s relationship is with police departments in other federal agencies (Capitol Police, Defense Department Police, etc.).
The actual position of “U.S. Marshal” is fairly high ranking itself. It’s the chief executive U.S. Marshals Service position in a federal judicial district, appointed to a four year term directly by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. When I was in the federal courts a new U.S. Marshal for our district had an investiture ceremony in our courtroom and it was a big pomp and circumstance deal, with a Houston police color guard, and the Houston Chief of Police and Harris County Sheriff in attendance. The guys running around chasing down fugitives like Tommy Lee Jones’s crew (or more commonly, shuttling prisoners to and from the federal courthouse) are the Deputy Marshals.
You’re a cop?
Yeah well just rustle me up a cup of cawfee and a chocolate doughnut with some of those sprinkly things on top.
And be quick about it