Opinion ID: 76264
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: County Police Department

Text: 41 The counties' lack of authority and control over sheriffs starkly contrasts with the counties' powers over their own county police department. Georgia counties have law enforcement power only to the extent delegated by the State. The Georgia legislature authorizes county governing bodies to create a county police force through a resolution or ordinance of the particular county governing body followed by the approval of qualified county electors. O.C.G.A. § 36-8-1(b). The county governing body controls the hiring and removal of its county police and may abolish a county police force at any time. O.C.G.A. § 36-8-2. County police officers are subject to the direction and control of the county governing body. O.C.G.A. § 36-8-5. County police officers have [t]he same power to make arrests and to execute and return criminal warrants and processes in the county of their election or appointment ... as sheriffs have. O.C.G.A. § 36-8-5(1). 42 The net result is that, under Georgia law, the county police department is the vehicle through which a county fulfills its policing functions, but the sheriff's office is a vehicle through which the State fulfills part of its policing functions. The Clayton County Sheriff does not receive any of his law enforcement powers from the defendant Clayton County.