Police Operations Essay

There are different levels of law enforcement which include local, state and federal levels. We are told by The National District Attorneys Association that (NDAA, p. 1) â€Å"As federal authorities are obliged to investigate all incidents that may be federal civil rights crimes, and local and state authorities have independent jurisdiction over such cases under their own criminal statutes, this MOU also should improve the reporting of all such violations to local, state and federal authorities. We are also educated from the same source that this will â€Å"increase public confidence in this critical law enforcement areas. † This demonstrates that all levels of law enforcement can work more effectively together in their efforts at maintaining peace but many times these different levels work alone when the situation falls under one category that is controlled by a specific are of law enforcement. The local law enforcement agency is a level which involves city and county sheriff departments which include domestic violence situations, traffic stops and basically all citizen laws within city or county limits. State law enforcement agencies is a level of law enforcement where state troopers usually enforce interstate commerce traffic and they also have a division within the state detective agencies that investigate crimes as well as respond to local and county calls when local law enforcement agencies are backed up and aren’t able to take care of the calls received. Federal law enforcement agencies handle a wide variety of felony crimes which usually take over the local and state jurisdiction boundaries when federal crimes are committed. They also investigate counterfeit currency and bank robberies. Any time there is a kidnapping crime to be handled, the federal law enforcement level will investigate where local and state agencies have fulfilled their duties. All levels of law enforcement will generally work together for one cause in solving cases where the law has been broken. Each level of law enforcement is extremely important where the local level handles lesser crimes and federal handle major offenses where federal offenses such as bank robberies, illegal felony possession of firearms, distribution of drugs over state lines and cases where federal laws are offended. August Vollmer was a pioneer in law enforcement who contributed to the development of criminal investigative techniques. We are told by Jim Fisher (Fisher, p. 1) that â€Å"In 1905, the citizens of Berkeley, California, banded together to rid themselves of the prostitutes, gambling houses, and opium dens operating openly in their town. The man they elected to do the job was a 29-year-old uneducated mail carrier who promised to clean things up. † Vollmer dedicated much of his time to making changes in law enforcement by changing the way officers were trained, thought and acted as law enforcement officials. He was well-known for using good judgment skills and his own common sense. Another pioneer in law enforcement was Officer James Foreman. We are told that (Lieberman, 2002) Foreman was our first African-American police officer. â€Å"Senator Joe Lieberman today paid tribute to Stamford, Connecticut’s first African-American police officer, James Foreman. † He is one of the many who were pioneers in law enforcement who made a huge difference is our country through their dedication.