In the United States, a sheriff is the chief of law enforcement of a county.^[1] Sheriffs are usually either elected by the populace or appointed by an elected body.^[2]

Sheriff's offices are typically tasked with: operating jails and prisons, security at courthouses and county buildings, protection of judges and juries, preventing breaches of the peace, and coordinating with city police departments.^[3] Sheriff's offices may also be responsible for security in public areas and events.^[4]

A sheriff's subordinate officers are referred to as deputies and they enforce the law in accordance with the sheriff's direction and orders.

Overview

Sheriff's offices

The law enforcement agency headed by a sheriff is most commonly referred to as the "Sheriff's Office", while some are instead called the "Sheriff's Department."^[5] According to the National Sheriffs' Association, an American sheriff's advocacy group, there were 3,081 sheriff's offices as of 2015^[update].^[6] These range in size from very small (one- or two-person) forces in sparsely populated rural areas to large, full-service law enforcement agencies, such as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which is the largest sheriff's office and the seventh largest law enforcement agency in the United States, with 16,400 members and 400 reserve deputies.

A regular officer of a sheriff's office is typically known as a deputy sheriff, sheriff's deputy or informally as a deputy. In a small sheriff's office, the deputies are supervised directly by the sheriff. Large sheriff's offices have several ranks in a similar manner to a police department. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has thousands of regular deputies, who are eight ranks below the sheriff. The actual second-in-command of the sheriff typically holds the title of chief deputy or undersheriff. In some counties, the undersheriff is the warden of the county jail.

Election

Of the 50 U.S. states, 48 have sheriffs. The two exceptions are Alaska, which does not have counties, and Connecticut, which replaced its county sheriff system with the state and judicial marshals in 2000.^{[7][note 1]} Washington, D.C.,^{[note 2]} and the five territories also do not have county governments.

Sheriffs are elected to four-year terms in 43 states, two-year terms in New Hampshire, three-year terms in New Jersey, and six-year terms in Massachusetts.^[8] Sheriffs are appointed instead of elected in Hawaii, Rhode Island and a small number of counties elsewhere.

In many rural areas of the United States, particularly in the South and West, the sheriff has traditionally been viewed as one of a given county's most influential political office-holders. Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Sheriff's_department
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