5.7: County
- Page ID
- 48206
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At the county level the senior officer is usually referred to as a Sheriff. The sheriff is typically elected as a political official and you may remember some of the English history that establishes this position of the Shire Reeve. The office of sheriff exists in nearly every county in the United States with a total of over 3000 offices nationwide. At the county level the sheriff’s department is often in charge of a vast amount of territory. The jurisdiction of the sheriff department is typically an entire county outside the major city limits. Again the size of counties can range greatly across our nation. The largest sheriff department is the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department which is the seventh largest law enforcement agency in the United States and employs over 16,000 members. Some small Sheriff’s Department may have one or two persons in their departments.
In addition to the often large amount of territory that they must patrol and cases to investigate, sheriff departments often have a number of additional duties as well. Most sheriff departments are in charge of taking care of the county jail, they typically serve warrants and eviction papers, they may also be responsible for providing court rooms security and transporting prisoners,. Some specialized duties exist within many departments such as boating, snow skiing, underwater diving, and emergency medicine.

Image 5.7
Sometimes pay is a little less at the county level and so entry level requirements are reduced as well. Again rates vary across the country but an average starting salary at the county level averages around $25,000. Most sheriff departments require a high school diploma or equivalent and only about 4% require some college. A large number of the employees at this level are civilian to help with all the additional duties outside of typical law enforcement. Nationwide there are about 170,000 civilian employees working within the sheriff departments. The diversity by race tends to be a little less at this level but by gender it tends to be a little higher. Approximately 84.5% of the employees are Caucasian, 9.8% African-American, 4.7% Hispanic, and 1% other. Approximately 15% are women.


