Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Smallville's Sheriff

I need a little information about Smallville's policing system.

We know that Rachel Harris is the Sheriff (I assume that means she is in charge). Here is Canada, we don't have Sheriffs. Or, well, we do but they aren't exactly law enforcement. So I'm a little at a loss here.

So... would there be a police station with a small jail? Would it be called a police station or something else?

What would the men working for Sheriff Harris be called? Here they would be called officer or constable. Is the same going to be true in Smallville?

Thanks all.

ML

Hi ML!

Going by your your run of the mill US TV show, the Sheriff's an electoral position. His station is the Sheriff's office (IIRC), definitely fitted with one or two jail cells. Usually, they seem to be fitted with bars at least on the door side. And if there are two, there are bars between. And for help, the Sheriff's got one or more deputies.

I checked: There's also a rather long wikipedia article for more details
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriffs_in_the_United_States

Michael

PS: This sounds better and better!

Police handle law enforcement in a city or town. It depends on the size of the town whether or not there is a police force. The Police is run by the Chief of Police, then detectives (who investigate crime), and police officers (who handle law enforcement). The Chief of Police is hired by the city and not an elected position.

Sheriffs handle the law enforcement of the county. Each Sheriff has Deputies who work for him/her (equivilant the police officers of the county). Sheriff is a elected position. My mom lives approx. 5 miles outside of her local city and when her house was broken into she had to call the Sheriff. And it took a while for the Deputies to arrive, since there is only 2-4 of them in her county. And since a county can be quite big (it can take over an hour to travel from one end to the other, taking into account the country roads, etc.), so unless the Deputies are nearby, the county folks are mostly on their own. Deputies handle both investigations and law enforcement.

Then there is the Highway Patrol. They are hired by the state and considered our state's law enforcement and mostly deal with law enforcement along the states Highways and State Roads (they are able to do law enforcement between counties). So, if a chase crosses county lines, or a murder happens between counties, or another crime... they are the ones that get called in.

I live in a town/city of approx. 35K-40K, surrounded by farming community (very similar to the Smallville on Smallville). We have a Police Department, plus we also have the Sheriff and have Highway Patrol (and since we're not close to an actual "Interstate Highway", I figure they must handle law enforcement for the State Roads as well). And then we have the prison and their guards. But that's a whole other mess of beans and probably why our small town is increasing in gang activity.

Hope this helps.

Hi ML:
That's a good site. Here's another one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Sheriff%27s_Department
Yes, Sheriff's offices have jails. Think the American Western movies.

Fundamentally, the Sheriff enforces law in the county (big in area) and the Police Departments do the cities (incorporated areas). Here's the order of officers:
Sheriff (Elected by popular vote and usually academy trained but not necessarily.)
Undersheriff (sometimes)
Deputies (trained in the academy and used county-wide.)

Technically the cities are in the counties, so jurisdiction is sometimes an issue and they do overlap.

With respect to Smallville, it's so small and most of the population is spread out on rural farms except for a small town center, so they don't have a Police Department. The Sheriff is the top law there. Police Chiefs are appointed by a board and not elected.

We never use the word constable. I can tell I'm in Canada (or Washington state and the border states) when I hear that term on the news.

If you need a beta on that particular section, I volunteer.

Another bit of trivia: Sheriff's uniforms are brown, Police uniforms are blue or dark blue. None of our police have hats with striped or checkered bands on them.

Also more trivia: The paint schemes on boats and helicopters are reversed between the US and Canada.

US - white boats/ helicopter bodies with red large diagonal stripes.

Canada - red boats/helicopter bodies with white diagonal strips on them. Usually there is an insignia of the unit on the stripes.
regards

Artemis

P.S. Virginia posted while I was and she has it right. I also live in an isolated small town. The county seat is 3 hours away over mountain roads from our town. We have both Police and a Sheriffs office and Highway Patrol since we are on a major highway.

Our Police have a jail, but very limited holding capacity and most offenders have to be transported to the county seat if they have to stay overnight. It makes for a lot of driving. In contrast, look at the article on the LA county Sheriff.

Thanks everyone. That was very helpful.

ML

Denser populated areas especially east coast there is often a county police also. There is still a sheriff but they don't do active law enforcement. What they do everywhere is they are the court's delivery service. Active search warrants and arrest warrants are are police but other court papers are delivered by the sheriffs department. So a summons for a lawsuit, eviction notice etc. They also deal with old warrants. The local one here emphasized how much he had reduced the backlog in his campaign last election. Did things like mail letters saying they had won a prize to the last known address of wanted people and arrested them when they showed to collect.

Hubby pointed out to me that we do have constables in the USA, particularly in the south. I live in the west and we don't. Here's what wikipedia says about Alabama:

And as the TV show "In Plain Sight" points out, U.S. Marshals have power in all 50 states and trump any local law. Yes, it can get confusing about who does what. US Marshals are similar in power to the RCMP and were created to enforce law in territories before we had states.

Typically each area has interagency agreements.

Hubby is out patrolling on Halloween tonight to make sure the little kids are safe and no vandalism occurs. He's a police volunteer; that is an unpaid person who can't arrest anyone but helps the police with directing traffic at accidents, tracking graffiti on walls and helping out at the desk in the Police Station. He wears a uniform and the shoulder patch says "Police Volunteer."

Artemis

Hi M L

Sheriffs are usually housed in the town that is the county seat with offices and jail in the courthouse. Depends on the county and how big a town the county seat is. For a humorous look at a sheriff's office, think the old Andy Griffith Show.

Jude

I live in Ramona, a small (by comparison) town in San Diego County, and we have a San Diego County Sheriff's office here in town.