County police

County police,often calledcounty sheriffsin theUnited States,arepoliceforces existing primarily in the United States that possess primary jurisdiction over an entirecounty.England and Wales,two constituent countries of theUnited Kingdom,are policed byterritorial police forceslargely formed on a county basis. Historically,Northern IrelandandScotland,the other two constituent countries of the UK, have had county police, although both countries now have unified national police services.

Sweden

Until the end of 2014, all of the 21counties of Swedenhad its ownCounty Police Department.In 2015, Sweden merged all local police departments into asingle police agency,dividing the country into seven police regions instead.

United Kingdom

• InEngland,the police are divided into 39 regional forces, providing full services throughout their districts.
• InWales,the police are divided into 4 regional forces, which all provide full services throughout their districts.
• InNorthern IrelandandScotland,the police are national forces, which provide full services to the full country.

Territorial police forces

Territorial police forces that have a presence at a regional and county level in England and Wales are:

• Avon and Somerset Constabulary
• Bedfordshire Police
• Cambridgeshire Constabulary
• Cheshire Constabulary
• City of London Police
• Cleveland Police
• Cumbria Constabulary
• Derbyshire Constabulary
• Devon and Cornwall Police
• Dorset Police
• Durham Constabulary
• Dyfed–Powys Police
• Essex Police
• Gloucestershire Constabulary
• Greater Manchester Police
• Gwent Police
• Hampshire Constabulary
• Hertfordshire Constabulary
• Humberside Police
• Kent Police
• Lancashire Constabulary
• Leicestershire Police
• Lincolnshire Police
• Merseyside Police
• Metropolitan Police
• Norfolk Constabulary
• North Wales Police
• Northamptonshire Police
• Northumbria Police
• North Yorkshire Police
• Nottinghamshire Police
• Police Service of Northern Ireland
• Police Scotland
• South Wales Police
• South Yorkshire Police
• Staffordshire Police
• Suffolk Constabulary
• Surrey Police
• Sussex Police
• Thames Valley Police
• Warwickshire Police
• West Mercia Police
• West Midlands Police
• West Yorkshire Police
• Wiltshire Police

United States

Main article:Sheriffs in the United States

In the United States, the powers, duties, and even existence of county police forces vary widely depending on thestate,and even on the particularcounty(parishinLouisiana) within a state. County police forces as autonomous entities are relatively rare and tend to exist only in metropolitan counties. Many states also have acounty sheriff's office,which is usually formed on a county basis and traditionally carries out duties related to the functioning of thecourtsand legal system, such asservice of process,executing legalwrits,and protection for the localcourthouseand itsjudges.Manystate constitutionsmandate that the position of sheriff be created, which leads many states to also give sheriffs the duties of a county police to avoid having overlapping departments with similar duties, leaving the sheriff as the exclusive law enforcement agency for a county. Some counties that previously had both a county police force and a sheriff's office have merged the two, leaving the sheriff in command of the unified force, as the sheriff derives his power directly from the constitution; the most prominent example of such a merger is theLas Vegas Metropolitan Police Departmentwhich is actually led by the county sheriff despite its name.

County police tend to fall into three broad categories:

• Full-service police departments, which provide the full spectrum of police services to the entire county, irrespective of local communities, and may provide contractualsecurity policeservices tospecial districtswithin the county.
  • Hawaii has only county police; there are no local police.
• Limited service police departments, which provide services to unincorporated areas of the county (and may provide services to some incorporated areas by contract), and usually provide contractual security police services to special districts within the county.
• Restricted service police departments, which providesecurity policeduties to county owned and operated facilities and parks. Some may also perform some road patrol duties on county built and maintained roads, and provide support to municipal police departments in the county.

Note:County detectives,who are maintained in the northeastern states bycounty attorneys' offices, fall within this category. In the state ofLouisiana,a county is known as aparish.In the state ofAlaska,a county is known as aborough.The only borough in Alaska to have their own police department isNorth Slope Borough