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Sheriffs in the United States

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, 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[edit]

Sheriff's offices[edit]

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.[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[edit]

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.


Research shows that sheriffs have a substantial incumbency advantage in elections. An incumbent sheriff has a "45 percentage point boost in the probability of winning the next election – far exceeding the advantages of other local offices."[9] Relative to appointed police chiefs, sheriffs hold office for twice as long.[9]

Restricted service – provide basic court related services such as keeping the , transporting prisoners, providing courthouse security and other duties with regard to service of process and summonses that are issued by county and state courts. The sheriff also often conducts public auction sales of real property in foreclosure in many jurisdictions, and is often also empowered to conduct seizures of chattel property to satisfy a judgment. In other jurisdictions, these civil process duties are performed by other officers, such as a marshal or constable.

county jail

Limited service – along with the above, perform some type of traditional law-enforcement function such as investigations and patrol. This may be limited to duties on county properties (and others by contract) to the performance of these duties in unincorporated areas of the county, and some incorporated areas by contract.

security police

Full service – The most common type, provide all traditional law-enforcement functions, including countywide patrol and investigations irrespective of municipal boundaries.

Sheriffs in the United States generally fall into three broad categories:

the , an agency of the Department of Justice. There are 94 United States Marshals, one for each federal judicial district. The U.S. Marshal and Deputy Marshals are responsible for the transport of prisoners and security for the United States district courts, and also issue and enforce certain civil processes.

United States Marshals Service

The who performs all court related duties for the Supreme Court of the United States.

Marshal of the United States Supreme Court

There are two federal equivalents of the sheriff;

Sheriffs by state[edit]

Alabama[edit]

In Alabama, a sheriff is an elected official and the chief law enforcement officer in any given county. There is one sheriff for each of Alabama's 67 counties, with a varying number of deputies and various staff members (usually dependent on the population). A sheriff's office generally provides law-enforcement services to unincorporated towns and cities within the boundaries of the counties.

Alaska[edit]

The office of sheriff does not exist in Alaska by the State's Constitution. Instead the functions that would be performed by lower-48 sheriffs and their deputies (such as civil process, court security, and prisoner transport) are performed by Alaska State Troopers and Alaska DPS Judicial Services Officers, who are the equivalent of bailiffs in lower-48 jurisdictions. AJS officers wear uniforms similar to troopers and staff district court facilities statewide but not magistrate's courts. Their peace officer status is limited to courthouses and when transporting prisoners in custody. Additionally, with no county jails, Alaska Dept. Of Corrections runs regional prisons which have separate male and female inmate "pretrial wings", which keep pretrial inmates who are legally innocent, separate from convicted prisoners who are serving a court imposed sentence following a criminal conviction. Pretrial wing units are the AK equivalent of lower-48 county jails. This uniquely makes AK DOC officers both correctional officers and jailers. Pretrial units house persons charged who are formally charged with crimes and remanded to pretrial custody, vs. traditional prisons for persons convicted and sentenced to a term of incarceration.

Ford County, Kansas

Bat Masterson

Sacramento, California (1860)

Benjamin McCulloch

McNairy County, Tennessee portrayed in Walking Tall, and in a suite of songs on Drive-By Truckers' 2004 album, The Dirty South.

Buford Pusser

Fayette County, Kentucky

Daniel Boone

King County, Washington, tracked the Green River killer; elected to Congress in 2004.

Dave Reichert

Milwaukee County, Wisconsin[99]

David A. Clarke Jr

Pickaway County, Ohio, longest serving sheriff in the United States.

Dwight Radcliff

Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania (1969–1996), famous for halting foreclosure sales on laid off steel workers in the recession of the early 1980s.

Eugene Coon

Davidson County, North Carolina, famous for his "no-deals" behavior and highly unorthodox way of fighting crime. Convicted felon.

Gerald Hege

Erie County, New York, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States.

Grover Cleveland

- Polk County, Florida, well known for his unique way of storytelling about different operations during press conferences.

Grady Judd

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, First Asian-American (of Chinese descent) sheriff in American history, who was known for his colorful antics and controversial tactics. He was a dominating force in Louisiana politics. His annual fais do was the largest campaign fundraising event in the country by any local official. Served as Jefferson Parish Sheriff from 1980 until his death in 2007.

Harry Lee

– Maricopa County, Arizona (1994–2016), famous for his stance on political issues, including immigration.

Joe Arpaio

Cochise County, Arizona, was sheriff during the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

John Harris Behan

– Former sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon; most famous for presenting/hosting World's Wildest Police Videos, appearances on COPS, and other acting roles.

John Bunnell

San Francisco, California (1860)

John Coffee Hays

John D. Stewart – , famous for using Pontiac Trans Am's for patrol units.[100]

Catoosa County, Georgia

Coweta County, Georgia

Lamar Potts

Neshoba County, Mississippi 1963–1968, formerly accused but later cleared of charges relating to the violation of civil rights of three Civil Rights workers down Mississippi, back in 1964.

Lawrence Rainey

Los Angeles County, California, 1998–2014, Sheriff Baca was known to give special treatment for the famous and connected. He created the "Special Reserves Program" so that he could give concealed weapons permits to favored individuals while withholding consideration for others. Forced to retire by pending federal investigations, in 2016 he pleaded guilty, but later withdrew his plea, to a federal felony of lying to the FBI. Baca was convicted and sentenced in 2017, but is currently out, awaiting the results of his appeal.

Lee Baca

Orange County, California (1999–2009), dubbed "America's Sheriff" by Larry King.

Mike Carona

Lincoln County, New Mexico, famous for killing Billy the Kid.

Pat Garrett

Graham County, Arizona, Mack received national attention for opposition to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.

Richard Mack

Cherokee Nation

Sam Sixkiller

Deadwood, South Dakota.

Seth Bullock

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (1982–2000), highest paid government administrator in the United States.

Sherman Block

In December 2016, O'Neal was sworn in as a sheriff's deputy in Jonesboro, Georgia as part of Clayton County, Georgia Sheriff's Department.[101]

Shaquille O'Neal

– Famous actor and reserve deputy sheriff in both Louisiana and Arizona, as seen in Steven Seagal: Lawman.

Steven Seagal

Terry Johnson – , notable for a federal investigation of his office's alleged targeting of Hispanics within the county, of which he was cleared of all wrongdoing.[102]

Alamance County, North Carolina

– 26th President of the United States, spent some of his early career as deputy sheriff in Medora, North Dakota.

Theodore Roosevelt

Fort Bend County, Texas, current Congressional Representative for TX-22.

Troy Nehls

– Sheriff of Lincoln County during the Lincoln County Wars in New Mexico, United States. He was killed in an ambush by Billy the Kid.

William J. Brady

played by Camille Mitchell, sheriff of Lowell County, Kansas on Smallville

Nancy Adams

from the Halloween films

Leigh Brackett

Earl Whitehorse in .

Far Cry 5

in Eureka

Jack Carter

on the television series The Dukes of Hazzard along with the movies that have followed since

Rosco P. Coltrane

played by Marguerite MacIntyre, is the sheriff of Mystic Falls, Virginia on The Vampire Diaries

Liz Forbes

of the Smokey and the Bandit films

Buford T. Justice

played by Michael Muhney, is the sheriff of Balboa County, California in the TV series Veronica Mars.

Don Lamb

Roy Hardin in the TV series .

The Punisher

sheriff of Maycomb County in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Heck Tate

played by Suzanne Somers, appointed to take her late husband's place as sheriff of fictional Lakes County, Nevada (near Lake Tahoe) in the TV series She's the Sheriff.

Hildy Granger

played by Robert Taylor, is the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming in the TV series Longmire.

Walt Longmire

Duke Huckelberry en .

Lego City: Undercover

of the James Bond films Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun

J. W. Pepper

played by Linden Ashby, is the sheriff of fictional Beacon Hills, California in Teen Wolf.

Sheriff Stilinski

Sydney Snow, played by , the corrupt sheriff in the TV series Hell on Wheels.

Jonathan Scarfe

played by Jennifer Morrison, is the sheriff of Storybrooke, Maine in Once Upon a Time; she shares her duties with her father, David Nolan/Prince Charming.

Emma Swan

of The Andy Griffith Show

Andy Taylor

in Twin Peaks

Harry S. Truman

voiced by Tom Hanks, is a sheriff in the Toy Story franchise.

Sheriff Woody

Lucas Hood, who is killed in the pilot, and then impersonated by a criminal, played by , in Banshee.

Antony Starr

Jimmy Brock, played by , in Picket Fences.

Tom Skerritt

Deputy Standall, Alex Standall's father from .

Thirteen Reasons Why

Sheriff Thomas "Tom" Michael Wachowski, from (2020) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (film) (2022), is the Sheriff of the fictional town of Green Hills, Montana, and Deputy Sheriff Wade Whipple's boss and close friend. He is portrayed by James Marsden

Sonic the Hedgehog (film)

Deputy Sheriff Wade Whipple is Tom's Deputy and subordinate in the Green Hills Sheriff's Department and close friend. He is portrayed by in Sonic the Hedgehog (film) (2020), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (film) (2022), and Knuckles (TV series) (2024).

Adam Pally

Jim Valenti, played by , in Roswell (TV series).

William Sadler

Other important representations of fictional sheriffs have been Collie Entragian (Desperation and The Regulators), Alan Pangborn in The Dark Half and Needful Things, and Edgler Vess in Dean Koontz's novel, Intensity.

Police memorabilia collecting

, the equivalent medieval German office

Schultheiß

, an Arab office sometimes anglicised as "Sheriff"

Sharif