https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/50819_ch_1.pdf

Reading Assignment

Local law enforcement accounts for the majority of the law enforcement in the United States. States as well as the federal government also have policing powers and duties. Local policing employs 77 percent of the nation's police officers, while 14 percent work for the federal government and 10 percent at the state level. The qualifications for police service vary between city, county, state, and the federal government. Forty-eight states have a state regulating agency that deals with police officer standards and training. Nationwide there are 362 full-time state and local law enforcement employees for every 100,000 residents for a nationwide law enforcement average of 3.62 law enforcement employees per 1,000 citizens. Four major U.S. cabinet departments administer most federal law enforcement agencies and personnel: the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Interior. The U.S. Department of Justice is the primary legal and prosecutorial arm of the U.S. government. Included in this department are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Within the Department of the Treasury are the Internal Revenue Service, Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture, Executive Office for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime, Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The Department of Homeland Security merged 22 previously disparate domestic agencies into one department to protect the nation against threats to the homeland.

Based on your reading assignment in the module, discuss how law enforcement is primarily the responsibility of local governments (77 percent of the nation's police employees work at the local level). Why do we not have or want a national police force? Or do we? Also, use the Internet to locate a national police force and report on their structure if it is similar to the structure in the United States.