Talk:Law enforcement in the United States

message: I am interested in knowing what law enforcement was like at the time the US Constitution was drafted and signed. If anyone reading this has knowledge of the history of law enforcement during that period, would you be willing to add a section? Jzilliac (talk) 19:38, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The History section is quite small and bad. Manys (talk) 16:48, 11 July 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Law Enforcement in the First Decades of the US

message: I feel that the article merits an equipment section, including a discussion of uniforms and vehicles, and would eventually include the weapons section as well. Here are some sources regarding uniforms:
* Source 1
* Source 2 
AniRaptor2001 (talk) 02:00, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Equipment and uniforms

message: While this article has a lot of good in it, the major lack of references, and a slightly need for wikifying, holds it back from Good Article nomination at this time.--SGGH 16:12, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Good article assessment

message: Basic (academy) and in-service training are not addressed at all. No firearms training, defensive tactics, role-playing, precision and pursuit driving, handling of evidence, rules of criminal procedure... Huge hole in this article until someone fills it. Police work is not just guns and handcuffs.--131.238.92.62 08:03, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I will be adding reference/citing sources, and will be editing the page to include things like de-escalading, scenario based training.~~Popo10-4 Popo10-4 (talk) 18:50, 8 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Training 

message: added sections on styles of policing, and police functions, with documentation.  Tychocat 09:53, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Here's a good reference  for the "Policing styles" section. →James Kidd (contr/talk/email) 03:21, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

text: The styles of policing is heavily Whitewashed and eupahmistic. The "reform-minded" part is still missing sitation, and is a heavily POV tinged section contrasting urban policing, where there is talk about a controversy around "treating everyone the same regardless of some group crime potency" Ie minorities, this is contrasted with suburban communities, which are described as homogenous, ie white and wealthy, and as places where policing is not as needed because of their homogenity, ie homogenous white communities, rather than looking at wealth, and urban density, ie mcmansions in the middle of nowhere of course has less drug trade and bussiness crimes associated with it, as many suburbs are bedroom communities where cars are needed to go into those icky non-homogenous towns where so much more crime is happening. If you are going to use a police style section to front load political views about the dangers of non-homogenity in a section about urban criminology dressed up as polcing tatics. Then please actually give the right relevant sources. Akiosi (talk) 14:34, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Styles of policing

message: why was there no "Controversy" heading?  Not all police are helpful and friendly.  Very few police (that I've encountered) took the "Service" part of their job seriously.  I am a very law abiding citizen and highly educated individual but no matter what the forum I interact with a police officer in, they always end up hassling me, as if I had done something wrong.  Very few people I know (most of which are college graduates and model citizens) have anything positive to say about police officers.  Rodney King, anyone?
I agree.  While also a law-abiding taxpayer myself, any interaction I have ever had with the police showed that they handle themselves in a highly egotistical and pushy manner.  This article makes it seem that no Police officer is corrupt or that all of them are friendly peace officers running around looking for cats to rescue from trees.  Let's be a little more realistic please.
If you want to write a controversy section, the police brutality that occurred in the late '60s would be a good jumping-off point. 74.75.59.121 (talk) 22:46, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Controversy 

message: If you want to include a section about controversy... Please consider WRITING one... but make sure you research it and cite your sources V. Joe 21:34, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Controversy about Controversy

message: I don't think that we should be listing the CIA as a Federal police force.  While they work in conjunction with FBI and others at times they don't truly enforce laws, instead acting as an intelligence gathering and paramilitary organization.  Most importantly, the CIA does not operate within the US.  I have left it for now, but I would like to hear other people's opinions.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.171.0.213 (talk) 05:00, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  CIA 

message: Could someone take some more modern pictures?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.138.11.3 (talk) 01:23, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Archaic pictures 

message: I put them in the county section as they police the forest preserve district in each county, and are county wide, county level.
I do not see the problem with talking about a county level law enforcement agency in the county section, moving the description to a page that is a list page makes no sense. The article talks about diferent states and situations, the Forest preserve district police, or sometimes ranger police, are at the county level and are full police I do not see the problem with the information. There are two almost duplicate sections on Police and Sheriffs, that I feel should be merged. --Never give up! Never surrender! (talk) 01:24, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Forest Preserve Police 

message: If there are the three branches of the United States government, legislative, executive, and judicial, then this article needs to clearly explain under which branch, if any, law enforcement in the United States resides. A clear discussion of which branch under federal law, and then into state's law, and then under any further subdivisions. While the answer may be complicated, this article is clearly lacking as a result of the absence of this information.
If the answer is too complicated to fit neatly into any current article subsections, then an entirely new section needs to be introduced to discuss this matter and why it is complicated. We teach children about the three branches of the government, and we teach children about the police, yet we cannot reconcile their coexistence in a Wikipedia article?--74.235.10.206 (talk) 07:05, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Corresponding Branch within the Government 

message: Correction in History Paragraph Four
There seems to be a mistake in paragraph four. The oldest state-level law enforcement agency in the United States is the Texas Rangers Division commonly called the Texas Rangers.  This agency was first established in 1823 and formalized i.e., constituted in 1835.  Dlkirkland (talk) 16:57, 11 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Correction in History Paragraph Four 

message: Must '*Be in good physical and psychological condition'. This may be an entry requirement, but from personal observation is clearly not an ongoing requirement. Perhaps the article needs to mention the issue of obesity in (some) officers serving in US police forces?1812ahill (talk) 23:04, 22 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Entry qualifications 

message: A section is titled "Less lethal weapons." I know deaths have occurred (obviously) from their usage, but aren't they usually (or almost universally) classified as "Non-lethal weapon?" 98.198.85.83 (talk) 09:24, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Section name... 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: :This page should link pages describing recent issues.
:What about linking Police brutality in the United States.Xx236 (talk) 09:57, 27 July 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Recent shootings 

message: This article is incomplete without reference to the many official investigations into police misconduct, such as the US Department of Justice's report on police misconduct in Ferguson, Missouri. This is far from an isolated incident. A few bad apples? Then say so. Put it in its context. By avoiding the topic completely you are giving credibility to the complaints about police. (Police perjury in the United States, Police brutality in the United States, Police riots in the United States.) deisenbe (talk) 15:07, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Whitewash 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello! I was thinking about adding a law enforcement break down of gender and race when it comes to employment by law enforcement in the United States. Does anyone thing that would be a good idea or not?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Clymernl (talk • contribs) 14:33, 16 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Make up of law enforcement 

message: I am also going to make a section for the controversies regarding police. More specifically the police shootings in places such as Ferguson. Clymernl (talk) 14:20, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Controversies 

message: I am also adding some of the race riots in 1960s and the Rodney King related riots in the 1990s.Clymernl (talk) 23:02, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Controversies

message: I am adding citations to the federal law enforcement part as well as deleting some of them. There was confusion originally as to where certain agencies report.Clymernl (talk) 23:02, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Federal

message: I deleted some of the county police and sheriff information because some of it appeared to be plagiarized and I also added some sources to both parts.Clymernl (talk) 23:02, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: County and Sheriff

message: The history section of this page should be examined
# It is extremely biased
# it is historically inaccurate, there were obviously existing police activities prior to the 1700's
--97.73.244.150 (talk) 02:49, 14 June 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't know if editors consider the above concerns still applicable about that section generally, but I find it odd that a claim about the Charleston Guard and Watch is cited to an article about Mennonites, which doesn't clarify the source of the word "crime" in quotes. That article in turn does not provide a citation for the text quoted here, but instead for a phrase in quotes in the next sentence. The cited source is Neil Websdale's "Policing the Poor", though unfortunately Google Books' search inside feature did not help me find the corresponding text there and thus enable me to replace the existing citation with a better one. I don't know how likely it is, but I hope that someone with access to Websdale's text does so. 208.59.185.238 (talk) 00:16, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  History 

message: Article says there are 17,195 police agencies. I googled “How many police officers in USA?”
How do you have an article that tells you how many agencies without telling you how many cops? Rsleejr (talk) 17:01, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Number of cops 

message: Do we have a page or a section for the vice units in the US police? -- Mhhossein talk 12:55, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: There is very little information. Covert operation#Plainclothes law enforcement and Vice#Law enforcement are the only pieces of writing I can find about it.  Armeym (talk) 09:19, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vice squads 

message: — Assignment last updated by Lucashodges (talk) 18:26, 8 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: Senior Seminar

message: Removed statement:
"Police departments share arrest information with third-party news organizations that archive names of citizens and legal allegations in a "police blotter". However, even if the allegations are dismissed in court, a citizen may not petition the third-party for removal."
Multiple Issues: no citations, unclear, and incorrect.
The fact that news sites post information about arrests, and there are documented cases in the media where innocent people who are exonerated in court have to then reach out or sometimes take legal action against news agencies to get those articles taken down because they are usually the first thing that comes up in a google search of their name, and that's detrimental to their reputation etc. etc. etc. If that is what this sentence is referring to, then it doesn't belong here. Blotters are public information; arrests are public information; just like court records, etc.. Agencies and courts are legally compelled to post the information or provide it to the public upon request. 
If a news agency takes a name from a public arrest or court record and runs a story with it then law enforcement cannot control that behavior; though yes the law enforcement may directly provide or release the information to the media (such as a press conference), it would be public information nonetheless. 
As for the line "a citizen may not petition the third-party for removal." This is a active issue relating to those found innocent during the criminal justice process and it has media and legal attention; it is also far more complicated. See these links for a brief example found via quick google search. Saying you can't petition for information removal is just untrue. A more specific statement and explanation about this issue could be added with some research. https://katherineobrienlaw.com/remove-news-article-google-search-internet/  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/old-arrest-boston-globe-fresh-start/2021/01/22/122cbd0c-5cd1-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html
Anyone who wants to write this section up, by all means! Armeym (talk) 10:01, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: This section has been re-written. Armeym (talk) 23:38, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed statement regarding dissemination of arrest records 

message: This statement is being posted to abide by the request made in the revert note by the person who deleted the section. The revert note said: "These are not "law enforcement" agencies; please discuss"
The article which was added and then removed discusses elements of non-criminal law enforcement in the United States. There are multiple problems with the revert-note. See below:
# This article is not a list of law enforcement agencies nor is it a list of criminal law enforcement agencies. 
# There are other types of enforceable laws in the United States aside from criminal law. 
# There are agencies and legal systems in place outside of the criminal legal system that are used to enforce the laws mentioned in point 2. 
# The agencies provided in the section are non-exhaustive examples of civil enforcement organizations. They are not a typical criminal enforcement agency, they may not employ officers or agents, and they may not carry firearms and handcuffs; however, the mechanisms described in the section are a form of enforcing and upholding laws the the US enacted and then put those agencies in charge of dealing with. 
# This article describes types, functions, the history of, powers of, etc. etc. enforcement of law in the US. Things outside of criminal law should be included because enforcement of law is not exclusive to criminal law and the United States has much more law on its books than just codes related to criminal law.
In summary:
The fact that the agencies used as examples of "Civil and Non-criminal law enforcement" are in fact not criminal law enforcement, nor their employees peace officers, does not discount the fact that there are functions within United States to enforce non-criminal law, and there are agencies that participate in investigate and enforcing those laws. 
As an example, the fact that the SEC cannot arrest people does not discount the fact that it is an organization that is used to enforce laws. Second sentence of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: "The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market manipulation." See also: Occupational Safety and Health Administration#Enforcement. If I could give a an alternative example of something else I was planning to add, I would mention parking enforcement; just because a parking enforcement officer is not a peace officer and doesn't have power of arrest does not mean they are not performing law enforcement by issuing a non-criminal citation for an offence prescribed by the law in the vehicle code. 
My intent is to readd the reverted section. please discuss Armeym (talk) 23:27, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Intent to Readd Reverted Section: Civil and Regulatory Law Enforcement (Non-Criminal)