Three levels of law. There are three major legislative and judicial jurisdictions that exist in the United States. The three major law agencies are Federal, State, and Local. Each of these has created a variety of police agencies to enforce laws.

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                          Three Levels of Law

   Richard Cohn

The American law enforcement system has been called the most complex in the world.  There are three major legislative and judicial jurisdictions that exist in the United States.  The three major law agencies are Federal, State, and Local.  Each of these has created a variety of police agencies to enforce laws.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is one of the most famous law enforcement agencies in the United States, and in the world.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a federal agency which is a United States Government agency, or office, whose primary functional responsibility is to enforce federal criminal laws.  The official purpose of today’s Federal Bureau of Investigation is stated in their agencies mission statement, “The mission of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners”. 

In the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, most state police agencies were created to meet specific needs. One of the most well known agencies was the Texas Rangers, who were created in 1835. Before Texas attained statehood and functioned as a military organization that was responsible for patrolling the Republics borders. The apprehension of Mexican cattle rustlers was one of the main concerns at that time.  

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Massachusetts was the second state to create a law enforcement agency.  Usually state law enforcement agencies are organized after one of two models. The first of which is a centralized model, where the tasks of major criminal investigations are combined with the patrol of state highways.  Centralized state police agencies usually do the following: assist local law enforcement departments in criminal investigations when asked, operate centralized identification bureaus, maintain centralized criminal records repository, patrol state highways, and provide select training for municipal and county officers.  The Pennsylvania state police was the first modern force to combine these duties and has ...

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